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THE PAGEANT OF INDIANA 



THE DRAMA OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF 
THE STATE AS A COMMUNITY FROM ITS 
EXPLORATION BY LA SALLE TO THE CEN- 
TENNIAL OF ITS ADMISSION TO THE UNION 



By- 
WILLIAM CHAUNCY LANGDON 



027 



IN RIVERSIDE PARK ON THE BANKS OF 
WHITE RIVER, INDIANAPOLIS 

OCTOBER SECOND TO SEVENTH 
NINETEEN HUNDRED SIXTEEN 






COPYRIGHT 1916 

Br WILLIAM CHAUNCY LANGDON 

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 



^y^ 



¥'• 



OCT -5iyiB 



THE HOLLENBECK PRESS 
INDIANAPOLIS 



CI.D 45053 



THE INDIANA HISTORICAL COMMISSION 

HIS EXCELLENCY, SAMUEL M. RALSTON, 
Governor of Indiana, President 

FRANK B. WYNN, Vice-President 

HARLOW LINDLEY, Secretary 

JOHN CAVANAGH CHARLES W. MOORES 

CHARITY DYE LEW M. O'BANNON 

SAMUEL M. FOSTER JAMES A. WOODBURN 



INDIANA STATE ADVISORY COMMITTEE 

CHARLES W. FAIRBANKS Indianapolis, Ind. 

A. B. ANDERSON Indianapolis, Ind. 

V. T. MALOTT Indianapolis, Ind. 

EVANS WOOLLEN Indianapolis, Ind. 

H. W. BENNETT Indianapolis, Ind. 

WILLIAM FORTUNE Indianapolis, Ind. 

JOHN H. HOLLIDAY Indianapolis, Ind. 

HILTON U. BROWN Indianapolis, Ind. 

J. G. COLLICOTT Indianapolis, Ind. 

CHARLES MARTINDALE Indianapolis, Ind. 

WILLIAM A. KETCHAM Indianapolis, Ind. 

CHARLES E. COFFIN Indianapolis, Ind. 

MRS. GEORGE C. HITT Indianapolis, Ind. 

MERRILL MOORES Washington, D. C. 

J. WESLEY WICKCAR Attica, Ind. 

MRS. VIOLA PARKS EDWARDS . . Bedford, Ind. 

MRS. J. R. VORIS Bedford, Ind. 

MRS. LENORA N. HOBBS Bloomingdale, Ind. 

MRS. SIBYL MORRIS TEAGUE . . . Bloomingdale, Ind. 

WILLIAM LOWE BRYAN Bloomington, Ind. 

WILL D. HOWE Bloomington, Ind. 

OSCAR H. WILLIAMS Bloomington, Ind. 

HERMAN F. LESH Bluffton, Ind. 

JOHN C. SHIRK Brookville, Ind. 

B. F. WISSLER Cambridge City, Ind. 

THOMAS JAMES DE LA HUNT . . . Cannelton, Ind. 

WILLIAM W. SWEET Centralia, Ind. 

MRS. CHARLES GAMBOLD .... Coatesville, Ind. 

F. F. FITZGIBBON Columbus, Ind. 

WILLIAM G. IRWIN Columbus, Ind. 

MISS VIDA NEWSOM Columbus, Ind. 

E. P. HAWKINS Connersville, Ind. 

MISS HARRIET E. WILLIAMS . . . Connersville, Ind. 

MRS. ELIZABETH CLAYPOOL EARL . Connersville, Ind. 

W. E. COOK Corydon, Ind. 

THOMAS J. WILSON Corydon, Ind. 

GEORGE MACKINTOSH Crawfordsville, Ind. 



ADVISORY COMMITTEE— Continued 

D. D. HAINS Crawfordsville, Ind. 

L. N. HINES Crawfordsville, Ind. 

GEORGE MOREY MILLER Crawfordsville, Ind. 

WILLIS C. M. MAHAN ...:.. Crown Point, Ind. 

MRS. CHARLES BUCKLEY Delphi, Ind. 

MISS MARTHA DOAN Earlham, Ind. 

BASIL WEBB Elkhart, Ind. 

MISS LOU THORNBURY English, Ind. 

MRS. ALBION FELLOWS BACON . . Evansville, Ind. 

HOWARD ROOSA Evansville, Ind. 

E. C. MILLER Fort Wayne, Ind. 

B. J. GRISWOLD Fort Wayne, Ind. 

MRS. FRED McCULLOCH Fort Wayne, Ind. 

J. C. WEBB Franklin, Ind. 

MISS HERRIOTT C. PALMER . . . Franklin, Ind. 

LOUIS J. BAILEY Gary, Ind. 

MRS. LUCY HILL-BINFORD .... Greenfield, Ind. 

JOHN F. MITCHELL, JR Greenfield, Ind. 

JOHN F. RUSSELL Greensburg, Ind. 

WALTER W. BONNER Greensburg, Ind. 

MRS. R. O. CHRISTIE Hadley, Ind. 

MISS GENEVIEVE WILLIAMS . . . Huntingburg, Ind. 

MRS. NATHAN SPARKS Jeffersonville, Ind. 

MISS ADAH ELIZABETH BUSH . . . Kentland, Ind. 

HUME L. SAMMONS Kentland, Ind. 

J. A. KAUTZ Kokomo, Ind. 

CONRAD WOLF Kokomo, Ind. 

C. V. HAWORTH Kokomo, Ind. 

A. V. CONRADT Kokomo, Ind. 

W. E. STONE, Purdue University . . . Lafayette, Ind. 

MRS. VIRGINIA C. MEREDITH . . . Lafayette, Ind. 

MRS. JENNIE B. JESSUP LaPorte, Ind. 

FRED HENOCH LaPorte, Ind. 

W. H. O'BRIEN Lawrenceburg, Ind. 

BENJAMIN McKEY Lebanon, Ind. 

S. W. CREED Liberty, Ind. 

MISS SUE BLAISINGHAM Logansport, Ind. 

MRS. HENRY B. HILL Logansport, Ind. 

EARL R. NORTH Michigan City, Ind. 

J. B. CARNEY Morristown, Ind. 

LEMUEL T. OSBORN Mount Vernon, Ind. 

T. F. ROSE Muncie, Ind. 

C.C.BROWN New Albany, Ind. 

F. A. KRAFT New Albany, Ind. 

MRS. NORA C. FRETAGEOT .... New Harmony, Ind. 



ADVISORY COMMITTEE— Continued 

GEORGE M. BARNARD New Castle, Ind. 

MRS. H. H. THOMPSON Noblesville, Ind. 

W. M. COCKRUM Oakland City, Ind. 

J. ROSS WOODRING Peru, Ind. 

MISS HARRIET HENTON Peru, Ind. 

JOHN W. KENDALL Peru, Ind. 

MRS. W. A. RUSHTON Plainfield, Ind. 

W. D. SCHWARTZ Portland, Ind. 

MRS. J. H. WILLEY Plymouth, Ind. 

MISS EDNA JOHNSON Richmond, Ind. 

MRS. MIRIAM A. McDIVITT .... Richmond, Ind. 

MRS. H. R. ROBINSON Richmond, Ind. 

MRS. MELVILLE F. JOHNSTON . . Richmond, Ind. 

MRS. A. L. BERNHARDT Richmond, Ind. 

MRS. HELEN BAMNGAERTNER . . Rockport, Ind. 

MRS. JULIET V. STRAUSS Rockville, Ind. 

MISS MARY SLEETH Rushville, Ind. 

W. B. LINDLEY Salem, Ind. 

T. A. MOTT Seymour, Ind. 

WILLIAM A. YARLING Shelbyville, Ind. 

W. E. CARROLL Shelbyville, Ind. 

MRS. O. W. COTTON Shelbyville, Ind. 

CHARLES T. McCARTY Shoals, Ind. 

CHARLES ARTHUR CARLISLE . . . South Bend, Ind. 

F. B. BARNES South Bend, Ind. 

F. A. MILLER South Bend, Ind. 

MRS. WILLIAM K. LAMPORT . . . South Bend, Ind. 

GEORGE A. BAKER South Bend, Ind. 

CHARLES L. OOLEY Spencer, Ind. 

HERBERT BRIGGS Terre Haute, Ind. 

W. O. LYNCH Terre Haute, Ind. 

FRANCIS M. STALKER Terre Haute, Ind. 

EBERT ALLISON Tipton, Ind. 

MRS. SAM MATTHEWS Tipton, Ind. 

MRS. A. A. WILLIAMS Valparaiso, Ind. 

R. I. HAMILTON Vincennes, Ind. 

OWEN J. NEIGHBOURS Wabash, Ind. 

THOMAS F. MORAN West Lafayette, Ind. 

MISS MAUD HAYS Worthington, Ind. 



THE INDIANAPOLIS CELEBRATION COMMITTEE 

CHARLES A. BOOKWALTER, Chairman 
LOUIS C. HUESMANN, Treasurer 
LANNES McPHETRIDGE, Secretary 

W. L. HEISKELL HUGH McK. LANDON 

RICHARD LIEBER JOHN F. WHITE 

HAROLD H. BROWN MRS. OVID BUTLER JAMESON 

REV. JOHN S. WARD MRS. ALBERT RABB 

WALTER C. WOODWARD J. G. COLLICOTT 

THEODORE STEMPFEL JOHN P. FRENZEL 

EDWARD BAILEY BIRGE 



THE PAGEANT COMMITTEE 

HUGH McK. LANDON, Chairman 
LOUIS C. HUESMANN, Treasurer 
HUGH H. HARRISON E. H. K. McCOMB 

HEWITT H. HOWLAND WILLIAM J. MOONEY 

CARL H. LIEBER OSCAR SCHMIDT 

ALEXANDER L. TAGGART, JR. THOMAS C. HOWE 

FREDERICK G. MELCHER J. LLOYD WAYNE 

BOWMAN ELDER CHARLES J. LYNN 



THE PAGEANT DIRECTION 

WILLIAM CHAUNCY LANGDON 
Master of the Pageant 

CHARLES DIVEN CAMPBELL 
Composer of the Music 

MARION LANGDON 
Designer of the Costumes 

HARRY ALFRED PORTER 
Director of the Field 

GEORGE WILLIAM LIPPS 
Leader of the Dances 

JOHN LeMOYNE GILBERT 
Assistant for Properties 



FOREWORD 



The Pageant of Indiana, the culmination of the Indiana Centen- 
nial Celebration, seeks to present the drama of the development of 
the State as a community from the time when in 1669 LaSalle first 
passed through this region on his search for the mouth of the Mis- 
sissippi, to the Centennial of its admission to the Union. It has 
seemed clear to the writer that this development has followed the 
lines of transportation, — first, roughly speaking, water transporta- 
tion with the port and market at New Orleans, — later, land trans- 
portation with the port and market at New York. 

The pageant grounds are located in Riverside Park, Indianapolis, 
on the banks of the White River, at a point where both kinds of 
transportation can be represented with excellent effect amid sur- 
roundings of great natural beauty. The performances will begin at 
four o'clock in the afternoon and continue through sunset and twi- 
light into the night, closing with electric effects. 

The Pageant of Indiana has been written, composed and designed 
on the principle that dramatically, musically and visually the mod- 
ern pageant is a distinct and individual art-form, having its own 
laws and its own technique. A special and careful historical study 
has been made for this pageant; questions of dramatic treatment 
have been decided strictly and only upon considerations of the na- 
ture of the subject; the music has been specially composed, the 
costuming specially designed and the light effects devised with a 
view single to the adequate presentation of the drama that lies in 
the history and current life of Indiana. Similarly all the elements 
of the pageant have been combined and worked together for the 
sole purpose of producing in the sequence of its various scenes a 
clear, beautiful and inspiring drama and a truthful impression of the 
development of the State of Indiana. 

In presenting the historical material a certain freedom has neces- 
sarily been exercised for the sake of dramatic clarity and effective- 
ness. Sometimes, as in the Canals and Railroads, considerable pe- 
riods of time have been compressed into the apparently brief day of 
a single episode. A pageant should be a serious effort at historical 
interpretation in dramatic form, not merely a chronicle of facts, and 



the guiding hope should be to give, if possible, a truthful impression 
and an illuminating understanding of the life of a community. Ac- 
cordingly, a large freedom is often permissible to the pageant- 
master in the handling of his facts, provided he work always sub- 
ject to the relentless vengeance of the God of Art who condones no 
failure accurately to produce the right effect. In this, as in all other 
forms of interpretation, sincerity and originality in work are the 
only ladders by which one may climb to the heights of Truth. 

In many instances the language of the dialogue is in the actual 
words of the characters represented. It has, however, seemed inad- 
visable to indicate these passages by quotation marks, on account 
of the frequent necessity for making slight changes, omissions or 
additions in the wording to suit the situation as represented. So 
also in producing the pageant certain omissions have been deemed 
advisable which it did not seem necessary to eliminate in the printed 
form of the pageant. W. C. L. 



THE PAGEANT FLAG OF INDIANA 



As there is at this time no officially recognized State Flag of 
Indiana, the Master of the Pageant designed a flag for use in the 
three Centennial Pageants under his direction, those at Corydon, 
Bloomington and Indianapolis. The essential requirements were 
(1) that it be simple and beautiful; (2) that it contrast yet harmon- 
ize with the American flag; (3) that it be of accepted flag design 
and colors ; (4) that it be significant. 

The design of the flag consists of three vertical sections, like the 
French and Italian flags. The central section is blue, the color of 
Statehood; the two outer sections are green, suggestive of the pri- 
meval luxuriance of the wilderness and of the present fertility and 
productiveness of Indiana. On the central blue field are nineteen 
golden stars. Thirteen, representing the first thirteen States, are 
in a circle, in which form they were placed on the first American 
flag. Five more stars, two in the comers above and three below, 
represent the other States which were admitted before Indiana. 
The nineteenth star, larger than the others, representing Indiana, 
the nineteenth State, is placed in the middle of the circle. The 
usual gold fringe, emphasizing the essential colors of the flag, com- 
pletes the design. 

This flag was first used in the Pageant of Bloomington and In- 
diana University on May 16, 1916, and was used at all the perform- 
ances of that pageant. It was also used in the Pageant of Corydon 
on June 2 and 3, and will be used in the Pageant of Indiana. It was 
further used in the escort that received the Governor when he came 
to attend the pageants at Corydon and Bloomington. 



THE OUTLINE OF THE PAGEANT 



I. Introduction: The Centennial Spirit 

1. LaSalle on the Rivers of Indiana (1669) 

2. The Taking of Vincennes (1779) 

3. The Tippecanoe Campaign (1811) 

II. The State of Indiana (1816) 

4. The Center of the State (1824) 

5. The Days of the Flatboats (1830) 

III. St. Francis of the Orchards 

6. Canals and Railroads (1836-1847) 

7. The Underground Railroad (1854) 

8. The Civil War (1861-1863) 

IV. The Torch of Art and Literature 

9. The Wagon and the Plow (1885) 
10. The Binding Ties (1900) 

V. Finale: Indiana, 1916! 



THE PAGEANT OF INDIANA 



INTRODUCTION: THE CENTENNIAL SPIRIT 

The full orchestra states fortissimo the theme from the Hymn to 
Indiana. It then immediately passes without modulation into deep, 
mysterious, swiftly moving harmonies; ever changing, yet seem- 
ingly ever the same; strangely almost narcotically beautiful; per- 
vasive with their enthralling vibration, yet surging to climaxes of 
soothing emotion. From the north, thronging around a tall figure 
riding a great horse, come forms heavily draped, some on horse- 
back, some on foot, shrouded as it were with mystery as with a gar- 
ment, the long, ample garments streaming in the air behind them, ' 
the colors of the garments strange, mysterious, unearthly, yet en- 
thrallingly beautiful like the harmonies of the music which brings 
them to the ken of mortal man. The leading figure, the one on the 
great horse is like the others, but greater than they, and taller. He 
commands; and they are massed shadows of him. The faces of 
none are visible. They are the Forms of Death and Oblivion that 
ever await us with strange unwelcome graciousness and come 
swiftly; and he is Death. 

He rides around the field once, asserting his power, ultimate, im- 
penetrable, then leaves the field to his Forms. They swarm over 
the field, thronging swiftly hither and yon in silent, pervasive tri- 
umph, coursing through beautiful, changing paths, ever departing, 
ever returning. They come and go from and to all directions. 
Unchecked they await all things ; they receive all things ; they con- 
trol all things. 

The harmonies and the thronging of the Forms of Death and 
Oblivion are interrupted by trumpet calls, sounding a sequence of 
notes akin to the Indiana motif, repeated. From the south, with 
high spirit and challenging demeanor, comes the Centennial Spirit, 
clothed in soft rose over shining armor, and her horse caparisoned 
in soft rose, and carrying, held high, the long two-edged sword. 
With her as an escort come on foot with equal pace the Community 
Arts, — History, Pageantry, Music, City Planning, Sculpture, Mural 



Painting, Electricity, Recreation, the Dance, — each represented by 
several figures, and all costumed and equipped in colors and manner 
appropriate to the characters. They advance steadily, persistently. 
The Forms of Death and Oblivion at first are surprised and with- 
draw, but return with more and more assurance to resist the ad- 
vance of these intruders and by bold attack to bear them down. Each 
attack is checked before the undismayed advance of the Centennial 
Spirit and her attendant Arts. At last the Forms of Death and 
Oblivion divide and depart in both directions to the ends of the 
grandstand, leaving the Centennial Spirit supreme. The Commu- 
nity Arts follow the Forms down, driving them and similarly 
spreading out and dividing as they follow them, but at last coming 
together again in a group, while the Centennial Spirit remains alone 
in the center of the field. 

Then heralded in the music by a call upon the horns, the figure 
of Death himself sweeps forward again from the north, riding down 
upon the Centennial Spirit in a short, swift charge. The Centennial 
Spirit, undaunted, stands her ground. From one side and from the 
other Death threatens the Centennial Spirit, but each time without 
effect. The Centennial Spirit never gives way, but with drawn 
sword raised on high demands recognition as an equal. The two 
confront each other resolutely, their calls sounding back and forth 
in the music. 

Then the full orchestra sounds forth the theme of the Hymn to 
Indiana. The Centennial Spirit turns and points with her sword 
across the river to the south. Death immediately raises high his 
arm in the greeting of allegiance. The Forms behind him on either 
side surge forward until coming together at the center they cover 
the field in the form of a pointed leaf, with the Centennial Spirit at 
the point and the Community Arts at the base. In the music the 
theme is developed as an ascending series until, as the music re- 
solves into the Hymn to Indiana, the figure of the State of Indiana, 
robed in royal blue and green, superbly riding, and bearing her 
green and blue shield and banner, is seen across the river passing 
by from the south toward the north, attended by pioneers in buck- 
skin clothes and coon-skin caps and armed with long squirrel rifles, 
representing the Counties of the State. Thirteen precede her, rep- 
resenting the Counties that were organized before the admission of 
Indiana to the Union; the others follow her. 

The Forms of Death and Oblivion and the Community Arts all 
raise their arms and then all kneel. Death himself by gesture indi- 

[12] 



cates his entire reconciliation and glad yielding to the State of 
Indiana and to the Centennial Spirit of all the regions whither he 
leads all living things. Indiana now comes to a point immediately 
opposite, turns her head, looks across the river, and raises her flag 
high full arm length in acknowledgment of the allegiance of the 
Centennial Spirit and of Death and of their followers. Indiana and 
her attendant Counties continue on their way, and the procession 
disappears to the north. The Forms of Death and Oblivion recede 
to the two sides and go out at either end of the grandstand while 
the Community Arts first move forward, then turning back, move 
straight out through the middle, leaving Death and the Centennial 
Spirit alone together on the river bank. The music is the Hymn 
to Indiana. 



[13] 



EPISODE ONE 

LASALLE ON THE RIVERS OF INDIANA 

(1669) 

Death and the Centennial Spirit remain seated on their horses 
on the river bank near the center of the scene. Just before depart- 
ing in their turn Death points up the river, where are seen four 
canoes coming down the stream. It is LaSalle on his first search 
in 1669 for an outlet of the inland empire to the ocean and to France. 
Death and Centennial Spirit depart together. 

LaSalle and his little fleet of canoes come down the river. He 
is seated in the first canoe and carries the flag of the Lilies of 
France. He points to the shore and his Indians paddle over. The 
other canoes follow. He lands. Ascending the bank, flag in hand, 
he looks long and searchingly all about him, noting the nature and 
topography of the surroundings. His followers, — priests, soldiers, 
coureur du bois, traders and Indians, fourteen in all, — also come up 
the bank and await his pleasure, according to their various char- 
acters, some in patient, some in impatient, observation of him, but 
none sharing in the enthralled exaltation of his mission. 

LASALLE: A good place for a trading post! . . . This green 
luxurious wilderness ! The sky-blue flag of the Lilies of France 
shall wave o'er these forests and these fields forever ! (Hold- 
ing high his banner.) The green; the blue! . . . Here shall 
there be a settlement ! 

PRIEST: Need we go further? 

COUREUR : The hunting here is plentiful. 

LASALLE : But France ! The way to France we seek ! 

SOLDIER : The farther we go, the farther to return. 

PRIEST : It is an endless quest. 

SOLDIERS: The way to death we'll find. Death for you, for us. 

OTHERS: Aye, death! Aye! 

COUREUR : You promised to build trading posts. Here are there 
furs enough. 

LASALLE : A chain of trading posts I'll build down all this river- 
w^ay. 

SEVERAL : What ! Would you paddle all your furs up-stream to 
get them hence to France? 

[14] 



LASALLE : I'll find you out the way down these increasing rivers 
to that one Great Water of the west, and down that Water, be 
it sea or river, till I reach the ocean. Then shall you trade with 
ease in all this empire, bring your trading goods down-stream 
from Canada and take your furs down-stream to a port that shall 
be, and so to market in Rouen, in Paris and Versailles ! 

All are silent. Some regard him scornfully as a reckless, hare- 
brained visionary; some with resentment at his imperious conduct; 
some with hatred. They fall apart into sullen groups muttering 
their discontent. Some of the white men among themselves begin 
to concert plots against him. LaSalle turns and divines their con- 
spiracies. 

LASALLE : Miserable pack of low, mean-spirited cattle, fit only to 
feed in safe protected fields upon the edge of towns! . . . 
Shall France lose an empire like to this for your dog-cowardice? 
As on we go, so spreads the empire of the King! (All bow.) 
The glorious Sun of France! — shall it not rise and shine un- 
dimmed in these blue heavens? (Pause; some still mutter.) 
What say you? 

ALL : Aye ! Aye ! Vive le Roi, Louis le Grand Monarch ! 

LASALLE : Into your boats ! On ! On ! 

SEVERAL : Water. We need fresh water. 

LASALLE (to the coureurs) : Find a spring. Get some water. 

Two of the coureurs du bois go off into the woods. LaSalle 
stands to one side by himself near the Indians, drawing on a chart, 
noting the topography. Some of the white men still stand aloof in 
discontent, while a few throw off their care for the moment by gam- 
bling with large dice. The coureurs return with water, with which 
all refresh themselves; LaSalle last. While the others drink, La- 
Salle speaks to the Indians. 

LASALLE: This river flows to the Great Water — how far? 

INDIAN : To the Great Water, to the Mississippi, far, far, far. 

LASALLE: And Mississippi flows — how far? 

INDIAN : The Great Water, Mississippi, flow, flow, flow — no man 
know how far. 

LASALLE: But I shall know. On! The canoes! 

All return to the canoes, LaSalle leading the way and then stand- 
ing on the bank watching them embark and himself with the flag of 
France entering his canoe last. The other canoes stand out in the 
stream until his canoe glides out ahead of them and leads them on 
down the river. 

[15] 



The music sounds the harmonies of Death and Oblivion from the 
Introduction as the Forms again scour the field sweeping away all 
trace of LaSalle and his expedition as they disappear down the river. 
At the same time is heard in the music as an obbligato one of the old 
chansons des voyageurs sung by the French and Indian traders as 
they paddled their canoes down the rivers of Indiana and of the great 
Northwest. The voices of the song die away; only the harmonies 
of Death and Oblivion are heard for a moment, and all is silent 
again. 



[16] 



EPISODE TWO 

THE TAKING OF VINCENNES 
(1779) 

(In order to keep Vincennes on the left bank of the river and at 
the same time to give the audience a nearer view of the proceedings 
at that place in 1779, the White River in playing the part of the Wa- 
bash has kindly consented to flow in the opposite direction during 
this episode. The audience will therefore understand that for the 
time being they are in the immediate neighborhood of Fort Sack- 
ville, on the east side of the river, that they are looking west and 
that George Rogers Clark and his gallant band are even now soon 
to be seen approaching from the south, which is during this episode 
only on the audience's left.) 

French inhabitants of Vincennes come in, going up and down in 
their daily occupations and interests. Here a group of old men sit 
on rough stools, pipe in mouth and sipping cognac, and recount to 
each other the days of their youth in La Belle France. There a 
string of girls carry linen down to the river to wash. Coureurs come 
in with furs to sell or barter; also Indians for the same purpose, 
their furs carried by squaws, and demanding ouisque in payment. 
Men and women bargain with them, showing them clothes, trinkets 
and weapons. A girl drives a cow through to the milking. A young 
man drives through an ox-team loaded with farm produce. British 
soldiers saunter about among the French people, treating them with 
contemptuous familiarity and the Indians with haughty disdain. The 
red flag of St. George flies from the staff of Fort Sackville beyond 
the trees a short ways to the north. Lieutenant Governor Colonel 
Henry Hamilton and his prisoner, the American Captain Leonard 
Helm, followed by three officers idly come down from the direction 
of the fort. The French greet the Governor with obsequious for- 
mality, which he hardly acknowledges, while they effusively greet 
the American, who responds with bluff cordiality. 

FRENCH : Monsieur le Commandant ! — Bon jour, Monsieur le 
Captaine! Bon jour! Bon jour! 

HELM : Bon jour, mes amis, bon jour ! Comment vous portez 
vous aujourdhui, eh? 

[17] 



HAMILTON: Why do you pay attention to such cattle? 

HELM : Ah, but they are my former subjects, if I can not say com- 
rades in arms ; and I trust they may be so again ! And when 
you walk around with me as my prisoner, will they greet you as 
friendly as they do me? I think not! 

HAMILTON : I'd string you up as a rebel and be rid of you, if you 
were not such good company. 

HELM : So may I you, when we change places. Learn grace then 
and charm of manner while you may ! 

They turn where in their way are a group of Indians gambling. 
A British soldier, standing by watching them, boots one of them 
with the butt of his g^n. 

SOLDIER: Get out, you dogs! The Governor! 

Like a flash the Indian seizes his knife from his belt, but as one 
or two other soldiers start forward he puts it back and draws off. 
The Indians sullenly withdraw by themselves a moment, glowering 
their hate at the soldiers, but in a minute at a jeering challenge from 
the winner quickly forget all their grievances in the toss of the dice 
again. As the Governor and Captain Helm approach the old men 
drinking their cognac, they rise and offer formal greeting as did the 
others. One old man, holding the bottle, the salutations over, holds 
it out in both hands to Helm. 

OLD MEN: Monsieur le Commandant! Monsieur le Command- 
ant ! — Ah, bon jour, Monsieur le Captaine ! 

ONE OLD MAN : Ici, Monsieur le Captaine, prenez ! Le plus bon 
cognac ! Pour votre toddy ! Prenez ! 

OTHERS: Oui-oui-oui! Bon! bon! Pour votre toddy, Monsieur 
le Captaine! 

HELM : Ah, mes amis, merci ! merci ! 

HAMILTON: Huh! Take it; take it! You might as well. They 
know good brandy! 

HELM : Ha ! So fortified, I will win the honors of pique from the 
Governor, as I have won the honors of war before ! 

HAMILTON: At the same price, by surrendering everything! 

Several Indians in war-paint come running in from the south 
yelling their triumph and waving bunches of bloody scalps in their 
hands. With short yells and quick tense steps, they come turning 
back and forth from side to side up toward the Governor boastfully 
recounting their prowess in pantomime, which suddenly ends by 
their standing instantly still before the Governor, the scalps held up 
before his eyes and their other hands reaching out to him for their 

[18] 



pay. Half in disgust Hamilton turns to order the payment. Helm 
watches the proceedings with dumb rage. 

HAMILTON: Pay the devils. 

An officer superintends the transaction, while a soldier takes the 
scalps, counts them, distinguishing the men and the women, pays 
over the money, trinkets, ammunition or other return, and carries 
the scalps off into the fort. Traders immediately come up to im- 
prove the opportunity from their point of view. 

HAMILTON: Ask them where they're from? 

OFFICER: Where from? 

INDIAN: O-hi-o. 

HAMILTON : From your country. Captain. I wish to God I had 
Clark's scalp among them, and yours, and all your crew. 

HELM: You'll never get Clark's scalp, and your only chance at 
mine is right here now. When he chooses, he will come and lay 
you by the heels, so be sure to treat me well, or Clark will bum 
you at the stake. 

OFFICER: He says there are some ten or dozen more returning 
from the settlements of Kentucky, — 

HAMILTON: Go, you, Lamothe, take some men, meet them; pay 
• them ; get this business done before they get to the Fort ; and if 
they have any prisoners with them, don't let them kill them; 
bring them alive. 

Captain William Lamothe calls together some soldiers, and with 
Captain Francis Maisonville goes off in the direction whence the In- 
dians have come. 

HAMILTON: Damn you rebels! I'll clean you all out of here 
within a year, all west of the Alleghanies. That will be my 
part of the work, and I will do it damned well. With your 
farms and settlements, fields and towns, you'll drive away the 
furs, and there are furs enough here, managed right, to make all 
England rich. Your own fault if your scalps get mixed in with 
the other furs! (Laughs.) Come brew me a toddy! For that 
I'd almost pardon you! 

Governor Hamilton, Captain Helm and his party go off toward 
the Fort. A drum beats in the Fort and most of the soldiers go off 
in the same direction as in obedience to the summons. A French- 
man, who has been out duck hunting comes along the river. He 
goes about among the French people, showing them a paper, and 
gathers some of them together with careful secrecy away from the 
Fort. Others come up as he reads. 

[ 19] 



FRENCHMAN: Sst! Sst! Be quiet! Clark is at hand. I have 
been with him. He has an army ! I can not tell how many ! He 
sends this letter to his friends, the French people of Vincennes. 
I read: 
To the Inhabitants of Post Vincennes: Gentlemen — Being now 
within two miles of your village, with my army, and not being will- 
ing to surprise you, I take this method to request such of you as are 
true citizens, and willing to enjoy the liberty I bring you, to remain 
still in your houses — and those, if any there be, that are friends to 
the King, will instantly repair to the Fort and join the Hair-Buyer 
General and fight like men. . . . Every one I find in arms on my 
arrival, I shall treat as an enemy. G. R. CLARK. 

There are suppressed exclamations of joy and satisfaction and 
of adhesion to the American cause. The people go about telling 
others and so all go quietly and willingly out, most of them toward 
the south. From the Fort the sunset gun booms out over a nearly 
deserted field. 

From the south in the water along the river bank comes Colonel 
George Rogers Clark with his men. Clark is in the lead. Following 
him in the water is a big sergeant, six feet two inches in height, and 
on his shoulders a drummer boy. The men throng after their leader, 
flags flying and all on the alert. They come up on the bank and 
swiftly run forward across the field to their assigned places for .the 
attack. At the signal from Clark the attack begins. At the first 
shot, a British sergeant runs out to see what it is, but falls. Captain 
Lamothe's party returns. They are seen first by Clark, who with- 
draws his men sufficiently to let most of them get into the Fort. 
Captain Maisonville and one other British soldier are however cap- 
tured, and held under guard in the rear. 

CLARK : Baley, draw your men over this way. Reinforce Bow- 
man, long enough to let those Redcoats get into the Fort. We 
don't want them stirring up the Indians, and if they get back in, 
we'll take them later with the rest. 

The fight continues briskly. Only one American is wounded, 
however. The French begin to appear around the edges of the fight- 
ing, showing their interest, eager for the success of the American. 
From one of these Clark gets paper and pen and writes. A Ken- 
tucky backwoodsman standing near Clark, loads his rifle and takes 
careful aim. 

KENTUCKIAN : Colonel, let me waste a shot and knock a chunk 
of mortar down the chimney into Leonard Helm's toddy sitting 
on the hearth. 

[ 20 ] 



CLARK : Let 'er go ! Wake him up! Mortar in his toddy '11 do it! 

(As he shoots.) I reckon you did it. 
KENTUCKIAN : We'll hear from him about it the first thing when 

we take the Fort. 

CLARK : Here ! Send out a flag of truce. Hold up, my men ! Baley, 
take Hamilton this, and tell him if I am obliged to storm, he 
may depend on such treatment as is justly due to a murderer. 
And tell him to beware of destroying any stores or papers ; for, 
by Heavens, if he does, there shall be no mercy shown him. 

The Americans lay by on their arms. French women of Vin- 
cennes come out with food for them, both corn bread and drink, 
which they accept with overflowing hilarity, and repeated cheers. 

AMERICANS: Ha! The first real food for six days! 

Lieutenant Baley returns the flag of truce and gives Clark a 
paper. All stop what they are doing and listen to learn the result. 

BALEY : The Scalp-buyer says he and his garrison will not be awed 
into any action unworthy of British subjects. 

CLARK : Give it to them boys ! Make it hot for them ! 

The firing is instantly resumed with energy, the French women 
hurriedly withdrawing out of danger as the fighting continues. Four 
Indian prisoners are brought over to Clark. Meantime a flag of 
truce comes out from the Fort with a British officer. 

BRITISH OFFICER : Lieutenant Governor Hamilton proposes a 
truce. He wishes to confer with Colonel Clark as soon as pos- 
sible. (Clark steps forward.) If you make a difficulty of com- 
ing into the Fort, Governor Hamilton will speak to you at the 
gate. 

CLARK: Colonel Clark's compliments to Governor Hamilton and 
tell him I will not agree to any other terms than his surrender- 
ing himself and garrison prisoners at discretion. If he is still 
desirous of a conference, I will meet him with Captain Helm. 

Quickly on return of the flag. Governor Hamilton and Captain 
Helm come out and advance toward Colonel Clark. Clark's chief 
officers stand together near him. The backwoodsmen cheer when 
they see him. 

HELM: What damned rascal was it that spoiled my toddy? (An- 
other outburst of cheers.) 

Clark and Hamilton confer. Clark is very imperious, sometimes 
angry in manner ; Hamilton at times haughty and indignant. While 
they are conferring, four Indian prisoners are brought up to Clark. 

CLARK : Tomahawk the reptiles and throw them in the river. 

[21] 



One of the Indians stretches out his arm to Hamilton in appeal 
to save them. He, however, can do nothing. Other Indians stand- 
ing about are much impressed by this and express their scorn at his 
inability to help them. 

CLARK: Tomahawk the reptiles, I say, and throw them in the 
river. 

The Indian prisoners are led over to the river bank, tomahawked 
in sight of the Governor and their bodies thrown into the river. 
Hamilton forthwith agrees to terms, and returns into the Fort. 
Helm remains with Clark and is cordially, hilariously greeted by 
his friends. Clark gives brief orders and his men are paraded on 
one side of the field. The French people all come out and jo)^ully 
group themselves about in good places to see the surrender. Gov- 
ernor Hamilton and his garrison march out, Hamilton and his offi- 
cers giving up their swords to Colonel Clark and the soldiers leaving 
their arms in a pile as they pass by. As Clark receives Hamilton's 
sword, he says : 

CLARK : I had thought to take you at Detroit, when I put an end 
to all this British fostering of the Indian atrocities, but I will 
take you when I can get you, first you and then Detroit ! 

A squad of American soldiers march into the Fort cheering. The 
British flag is lowered and the American flag is raised in its place. 
Thirteen guns are fired as a salute. As in answer there is heard a 
gun on the river, and the batteau, the "Willing," is seen coming up. 
There is vociferous welcoming of the men of the Willing and of joy 
on their part at the successful outcome of the attack on Vincennes 
not unmixed with chagrin at arriving too late themselves to take 
part in it. At Clark's order then the prisoners are brought forward 
and the officers separated from the other. 

CLARK : Step forward and raise your hands, you who will take this 
oath, never during the war to take arms against the United 
States of America or in any way to help their enemies, your 
lives stake for your honor, so help you God and may I get hold 
of you if you do ! 

Most of them do. Those who do not are led over and placed with 
the officers, who are not to be released. 

PRISONERS: So help me God! 

CLARK : Now release them and start them on their way immedi- 
ately. Give each of them his rifle. I would not send any man 
unarmed toward that British nest of treachery, Detroit! We'll 
get them back again soon, when we take Detroit ! 

[22] 



The prisoners each take a rifle from the pile and depart by ones 
and twos and three. 

CLARK: Now to Kaskaskias! Lieutenant Brashers, I leave you 
in command of the Fort, which I name Fort Patrick Henry, 
(Cheers.) Captain Helm will remain to command the town of 
Vincennes in all civil matters and to superintend the Indian af- 
fairs. (Cheers, especially from the French.) The rest of us — 
bring up the boats — to Kaskaskias and soon, I trust, to Detroit ! 

Amid great cheering from their comrades and the French people, 
Colonel George Rogers Clark, his soldiers and his British prisoners 
embark on the "Willing," four other large boats and the small boat, 
the "Running Fly," and row off down the river. The new garrison 
depart into the Fort and the French people and the Indians into the 
town and the woods. 



With the music of Death and Oblivion the Forms again sweep 
over the scene leaving no vestige of the days of Old Vincennes, 
"The British Grenadier" being heard as an obbligato in the music. 



[23] 



EPISODE THREE 

THE TIPPECANOE CAMPAIGN 

(1811) 

From the north, from the direction of Canada, there emerges 
from the woods a British party consisting of Colonel Elliott, the 
British Agent, two other officers, a number of soldiers, and two In- 
dian guides. They stop almost as soon as they have come in sight 
and one of the Indians goes swiftly across the field. Suddenly sev- 
eral Indians arise from the brush ahead of him. There is a colloquy 
between them, apparently satisfactory, about the British visit. One 
departs and soon returns accompanied by Tecumseh, Elskwatawa, 
and other chiefs. They greet the British with dignity, and are in 
turn appropriately recognized. 

ELLIOTT: Brother, your Father, the King, is anxious to hear 
about his children in the forest and wants to help them so that 
they may keep their lands, may receive justice from the Big 
Knives and have plenty in their towns and villages. 

TECUMSEH : Brother, the tribes are gathering. Through all the 
land, the Shawnees, the Miamis, the Pottawattamies, the Dela- 
wares, the Mingoes, the Weas and the Kickapoos all are gath- 
ering to drive the Big Knives out of their land and to drive them 
into the ocean. 

ELSKWATAWA : Brother, the Great Spirit has spoken to his chil- 
dren and said he does not want the Big Knives to take the hunt- 
ing lands from his children and that he will give the word and 
drive them into the sea. 

ELLIOTT : Good, brother, good ! And the Father at Maiden will 
help you ; he will do everything for you ; and now he sends you 
presents, four times as many as ever before, that you may be 
ready and hear him when he gives the word and sends you the 
war-belt and the black tomahawk. He sends you new rifles, and 
powder, and lead for swift messengers, and blankets to keep 
you warm, and everything you may need that you may know 
he is your Father and will help you against the Big Knives as 
he used to do. 

TECUMSEH : It is good. 

At a sign from Elliott, several of his soldiers quickly go back 
whence they came, and the whole party move over in that direction. 
Indians in considerable number come in. The British produce rifles, 

[24] 



powder, lead and other articles which are lavishly given to the In- 
dians, who are more and more delighted at the quantity given them. 
A keg of whisky is brought out but both Tecumseh and Elskwatawa 
interfere, Tecumseh sternly forbidding the keg to be given and Els- 
kwatawa immediately protesting. 

TECUMSEH: No! The Father in Maiden must not send the fire- 
water to his children. It is evil. 

ELSKWATAWA: The Great Spirit has told his children they 
shall not touch the fire-water, nor give away their land for it. 

ELLIOTT : Take it back. Brother, gather all the Indians together. 
The Father at Maiden will give the word and will help his chil- 
dren. 

Elskwatawa during these proceedings has stood a short distance 
off by himself, chanting his incantations over his magic bowl and 
beads as the self-styled Prophet of the Great Spirit. After the rifles 
and ammunition are all distributed, the British depart. The Indians 
also go off with their new acquisitions in various directions. Te- 
cumseh and Elskwatawa are left alone together. 

ELSKWATAWA: Elskwatawa prophet of the great Spirit! 

TECUMSEH : It may be, but Great Spirit not talk so much. Great 
Spirit silent. 

ELSKWATAWA : Huh ! Great Spirit talk with his Prophet when 
I hold up the bowl to him. 

TECUMSEH: Do you gather the people of all the tribes together; 
I will unite the warriors and drive the white men from our 
lands, Big Knives first ; then Redcoats. . 

ELSKWATAWA : The Great Spirit speaks again. Tecumseh must 
listen to the words of the Great Spirit. 

Elskwatawa begins his chant again. Tecumseh looks at him 
half scornfully, yet also half credulously and goes out. As soon as 
he is gone, Elskwatawa stops abruptly, puts up his bowl and beads 
and turns away. 

ELSKWATAWA : Tecumseh unite all warriors, drive away the 
white man for Elskwatawa. All the people — warriors, squaws, 
chieftains and children follow Elskwatawa, Prophet of the 
Great Spirit. Huh! 

Several Indians come in with Barron, a messenger from Governor 
William Henry Harrison with a white flag. As they approach 
the Prophet turns around with a very aloof manner, looks at Bar- 
ron steadily without word or sign of recognition, then bursts out in 
anger. Other Indians return and, standing around, intently watch, 
reflecting the growing anger of their Prophet. 

[25] 



ELSKWATAWA: For what purpose do you come here? Broui- 
lette was here ; he was a spy. Dubois was here ; he was a spy. 
Now you have come. You too are a spy. There is your grave ! 
Look on it! 

Elskwatawa points at the ground immediately in front of Barron. 
There are threatening gestures among the Indians and growing ex- 
citement with fierce ejaculations. Barron looks calmly and fixedly 
at Elskwatawa. There is silence. Then Tecumseh comes in. He 
looks about coldly and sternly upon all and approaches Barron. 

TECUMSEH : What is this? He comes under the white flag. Your 
life is in no danger. Tecumseh says it. The honor of the red 
man is stronger than the honor of the white man. The honor 
of the Shawnee protects you coming with the white flag. Why 
do you come? 

BARRON: William Henry Harrison, Governor and Commander- 
in-Chief of the Territory of Indiana, sends word to the Shawnee 
Chiefs and the Indians assembled at Tippecanoe that he is not 
your personal enemy, but your friend, and he wants to meet you 
in a council, to clear away all the clouds and strengthen the 
chain of friendship. 

TECUMSEH : I will meet him in council. Now depart. (To the 
Indians.) See him safe upon his way, or you are dead men. I 
will see you started. 

Tecumseh and Barron go out with two Indians. Elskwatawa 
calls the Indians about him, and proceeds to weave his spell over 
them. They dance about him, touch his bowl and pass his strings 
of beads through their hands. Elliott, the British Agent, comes 
again. He is vociferously welcomed. 

ELLIOTT : The Father at Maiden, in care for his children has sent 
more presents to them. They are here at hand. Come and get 
them. He says to you : Keep your eyes fixed on me ; my toma- 
hawk is now up ; be you ready but do not strike till I give the 
signal. 

There is a shout and a war-whoop from the Indians. Some of 
them go out and return with new guns and ammunition, with 
blankets and gaudy trinkets. Elskwatawa acts as though in a 
trance. 

ELSKWATAWA : Open your ears to the voice of the Great Spirit, 
children of the Shawnees, the Pottawattamies, the Weas, the 
Miamis, the Ottawas, the Winnebagos, the Delawares, the Kick- 
apoos ! The Great Spirit, your Father speaks to you through the 
Great Prophet, and it is death to him who will not listen to the 
Prophet of the Great Spirit! . . . It is I, the Great Spirit, 
speaking to you ! I will that my red children have back all their 

[26] 



lands from the white men who have taken them. I will turn 
the bullets of your enemies to thistle-down so that they shall 
not hurt you, and their powder into sand so it shall do you no 
harm, and you shall drink freely of the blood of your enemies 
and you shall have all power in the forests and on the streams 
from the rising sun to the setting sun. I will give you the sig- 
nal through my Prophet, Elskwatawa! I, your Father, the 
Great Spirit, say it to you through the mouth of my son the 
Prophet! Death to him who will not listen to my voice in the 
mouth of my Prophet ! 

With a fierce, blood-curdling whoop the Indians go on with the 
war-dance more and more vehemently. The sound of drums is 
heard. Elskwatawa commands his Indians to withdraw to one side. 
From opposite side comes Governor William Henry Harrison, in 
the full military uniform of his office, the Secretary of the Territory, 
John Gibson, and the Judges of the Supreme Court, escorted by 
American soldiers. They draw up formally, making a space for a 
council. Tecumseh returns attended by several chiefs. Camp stools 
are brought forward for the Governor and his officers and for Te- 
cumseh and his chiefs. The Governor and his officers seat them- 
selves. Tecumseh, with Elskwatawa, White Loon, Stone Eater, 
Winnemac, and other chiefs advance with great dignity. Governor 
Harrison rises and offers his hand. Tecumseh steps back, draws 
his blanket about him haughtily and stands motionless and silent. 
The Governor points to the vacant stools, and says : 

HARRISON : Your Great Father offers you a chair to be seated on 
here by my side. 

TECUMSEH: My father! The sun is my father, and the earth is 
my mother, and I will recline on her bosom. 

Tecumseh seats himself on the ground and the other chiefs fol- 
low his example. 

HARRISON : Brothers, I understand you have complaints to make 
and redress for certain supposed wrongs to ask for. What are 
they? I have always been your friend. I will listen to you. 
Between so great a warrior as Tecumseh and myself there 
should be no concealment ; all should be done under a clear sky 
and in an open path. 

TECUMSEH : I do not know how I can ever again be the friend of 
the white man. You have cheated us out of our lands. The 
Great Spirit gave this great island to his red children and placed 
the whites on the other side of the big water. All the tribes 
from the Miami to the Mississippi and from the Lakes to the 
Ohio form one nation. They own the land in common and the 
land can not be sold without the consent of all. Unless the 

[27] 



Seventeen Fires give up the lands they got from the Miamis, the 
Delawares and the Pottawattamies at Fort Wayne, I and the 
tribes who are united with me will fall on those tribes and they 
shall be no more. The Seventeen Fires have united and they 
can not object if the Red Men do the same. All the Northern 
Tribes have united. I am the head of them all. Soon all the 
Southern Tribes will unite with us also, and we shall all be to- 
gether, like the Seventeen Fires of the white men. 

HARRISON : Brother, if the Great Spirit had intended his red chil- 
dren to be all one nation as you say, he would have put one 
tongue in all their heads instead of having every tribe speak a 
different language. The lands were bought from the Miamis 
who owned them. The Shawnees have no right to come from 
a distant land south of the Ohio and tell the Miamis what they 
may do. 

TECUMSEH (springing up) : He lies ! 

HARRISON: Brother, listen to me. This is the third year the 
white people have been alarmed at your proceedings. I have 
always been your friend, been governed by the strictest rules 
of right and justice and held toward you the open hand. Tell 
me now, what will you do? 

TECUMSEH: The Great Spirit manages our affairs. I do not 
know what he will have us do. Brother, do not believe I came 
here to get presents from you. If you offer, we will not take. 
By taking goods from you, you will hereafter say that with them 
you purchased another piece of land from us. If British offer 
presents, we will not take. But if British offer powder, we will 
take. With my consent or the consent of the Shawnees you 
shall never get another foot of land. 

HARRISON : Brother, do you really think you are able to contend 
with the Seventeen Fires; or with one Fire alone? You shall 
not surprise us. As soon as the Long Knives hear my voice, 
you shall see them pouring forth their swarms of hunting-shirt 
men as thick as the mosquitoes on the Wabash. Brother, con- 
sider it well. Will you have peace, or are you bent on war? 

TECUMSEH : I am sick. 

HARRISON: Will you have peace, or will you have war? (Te- 
cumseh rises but answers only with a look.) If you will have 
war, spare the women and children ; let it be a war of men. 

TECUMSEH (stretching out his arm its full length with his fist 
clenched) : Your women and children are safe. My warriors 
against your men. 

Tecumseh turns abruptly and strides away. The other Indians 
rise and follow him. Governor Harrison and his escort depart to the 
south whence they came. Tecumseh watches them until they are 
gone. Then he gives a short shrill war-cry. The others stand to 
heed him. 

[28] 



TECUMSEH : Bring me the war-belt. Get the canoes. You (indi- 
cating a number of warriors) come with me. I go beyond the 
Ohio River ; I go far down the Father of Waters, to unite with 
us the Seminoles, the Creeks, the Chickasaws, the Choctaws and 
the Cherokees of the south. Until I return, keep peace at all 
hazards. Do not pick up the tomahawk. Be friends with the 
Long Knives. Until I, Tecumseh, return, peace. Then we will 
strike, and the Great Spirit will make of all his red children one 
nation, and give us all the land from the Lakes to the Big Water 
and from the Alleghanies to the Mississippi for our own for- 
ever. 

Shaking the large war-belt in the air he goes quickly to the river, 
embarks with his chosen warriors in the canoes and paddles swiftly 
out of sight. Indian village life is resumed. Squaws grind com, 
children play about with bows and arrows and with dogs, or fish in 
the river. This continues long enough to suggest an interval of 
time. Suddenly two warriors spring up and listen, alert, spring off 
to the south to reconnoiter and return, giving the alarm. The 
squaws and children disappear, as do all but the three chiefs. White 
Loon, Stone Eater and Winnemac. Elskwatawa also remains but 
soon withdraws after evidently receiving reports and giving instruc- 
tions, pointing across the river. First American scouts march in 
as at the head of an army, and then Governor William Henry Har- 
rison, with his staff. Troops are seen behind them. The three 
chiefs stand forward and beckon them to stop. 

WHITE LOON: What does the father of the white men want? 
Are we not brothers? Why will he thus frighten our squaws 
and our children? 

HARRISON : I have no intention of attacking you unless you re- 
fuse to comply with my just demands. I will go on and en- 
camp. In the morning I will talk with the Prophet and his 
chiefs and explain to him the will of the Great Father, the 
President of the Seventeen Fires. 

WHITE LOON: Good. Friends and brothers. Camp ground 
over there. To-morrow hold council; smoke peace pipe again. 

Stone Eater and Winnemac go with the Governor to guide him 
to the camp ground and soon the army is seen on the other side of 
the river making its way up onto the plateau beyond to encamp. 
White Loon meantime reports to the Prophet, who directs an early 
attack. There is hurried, stealthy and confident preparation among 
the Indians. 

ELSKWATAWA : The Great Spirit says to his children to strike, 
not to be afraid but obey the voice of his Prophet. The bul- 
lets of your enemies shall not hurt you! Their powder will 

[29] 



turn to sand! Death to him who does not believe the word of 
the Prophet and obey his voice ! All the land of the Northwest 
has the Great Spirit given to his Prophet, Elskwatawa, and 
to his red children! When you attack the white men, you will 
find half of them dead and the other half crazy, so you will have 
an easy time killing them with your tomahawks and taking 
their scalps to hang in your lodges! Eeeyo! Yo! Yo! Yo! 
Eeeeeeyo ! ! ! 

The Indians, dancing frenzied war-dances with suppressed cries 
gather around him, struggling to touch him, his blanket, his bowl or 
his beads, and then swiftly stretch out in a long thin line and ad- 
vance across the river, some swimming, others going around the 
way the army went. A shot is heard on the other side. Then the 
hideous war-whoop as the Indians rush forward with the attack. 
The fight is heard, but only a little seen. Meantime Elskwatawa 
remains on the other side. There standing alone on the river bank 
he chants his incantations, with groups of Indian squaws and chil- 
dren here and there watching the progress of the fight. Then it is 
evident that the Indians are disastrously defeated. The squaws and 
children flee for their lives. Indians come running down the hill 
opposite and plunge into the river. Elskwatawa at last sees the re- 
sult is unquestionable and himself flies for his life. Americans are 
seen pursuing the Indians until all are gone and no one is in sight. 
. . . There is a pause. Then on both sides of the river are seen 
Hoosier pioneers migrating by families north into the new country 
on foot, on horseback or in wagons. Nothing disturbs their onward 
silent progress. 



[30] 



II 

THE STATE OF INDIANA 
(1816) 

From both sides, with music in the orchestra based on the Pioneer 
motif come people of various types of character, occupation and 
state of life of the time of the Constitutional Convention at Cory- 
don in 1816. They are pioneers and backwoodsmen, farmers, mer- 
chants, soldiers of the War of 1812 and a few of the Revolution. 
Quakers in their broad-brimmed hats and shad-bellied coats, and 
lawyers with the reminiscent queue of their profession, all bearing 
characteristic tools or implements of their profession — axes, rifles, 
swords, sc5rthes, books — and all accompanied by their families. As 
accumulating they pour in, they sing in chorus : 

CHORUS: 

To conquer and with tillage bless 
This untrod forest wilderness — 
In the depths of the forest we open the fields, 
And garner the brown soil's golden yields ; 
With axe and gun our homes defend ; 
The helping hand to all extend ! 
So face we the future, plant with homes 
the new won land! 

To conquer this untrod forest wilderness — 

Fearless, ascendant, 

Calm, independent, 

Face we the future together hand in hand ! 

The music passes straight on into a graceful sweeping movement, 
as from either side, both near the grandstand and back by the river, 
come running swiftly the Indiana Spirits, figures in greens and 
blues, forms of the constructive spirit that molds community life. 
These pouring in, circle around the people, and interweaving their 
paths among them form with them a design in which the people 
form a broken horse-shoe. Again the people sing: 

CHORUS: 

America! High Sovereign! 

Oh create of us a State! 

And in thy heaven-emblazoned flag 

Our star infederate ! 

[31] 



For our brows the sovereign crown would wear, 
And our shoulders sovereign burdens bear, 
As we grasp with strong impartial might 
The Sword and Scales of Law and Right ! 
America! Forever be thine honor glorious! 
America! Forever be thine honor glorious! 

This is encouraged by trumpet peals of The Star-Spangled Ban- 
ner, wherewith the choral appeal is resumed with increasing urgency 
and heightened climax. Then along the roadway America enters, 
on a white horse, bearing the Shield of the United States and car- 
rying the American Flag. She is attended by the eighteen States 
already in the Union, all on horseback and bearing their State 
Shields but not their flags. On either side of America come on foot 
the figures of the Civil Law and the Criminal Law bearing their 
symbols, the Scales of Justice and the Sword. All the people ac- 
claim America by raising their arms full length, America takes 
position facing the people, the States in a row behind her, and ad- 
dresses the people. 

AMERICA: 

Your prayer I hear, my people, and I grant! 
Choose ye now from among you men of worth 
To draw the lines of your self-government ! 

From among the various groups of the people the Convention 
delegates emerge into the center and form as into a parliamentary 
body, Jonathan Jennings as President of the Constitutional Conven- 
tion at their head, and all facing America, who proceeds to charge 
them. 

AMERICA: 

For all the men of Indiana, now 
Deliberate, consult, decide, and voice 
Their will for all the future years ! A Form 
Of Government prepare to guide the State ! 

Jonathan Jennings, the President of the Convention, then takes 
from William Hendricks, the Secretary of the Convention, a scroll, 
representing the Constitution of 1816, and reads therefrom to the 
Delegates part of the Preamble and Naming clause. 

JENNINGS : We, the People of the Territory of Indiana, do ordain 
and establish the following Constitution, and do mutually agree 
with each other to form ourselves into a free and independent 
State by the name of Indiana. . . . Those who are in favor of 
this Constitution will say Aye ! 

DELEGATES: Aye! 

[32] 



All the people raise a great shout. President Jennings turns 
around and hands the scroll to America, who holds it high over 
her head. All the eighteen States raise their arms in consent, and 
again the people raise a great shout. America again addresses the 
people of Indiana. 

AMERICA: 

Choose ye now her whom you will have to be 
Your State, and bring her to me that I may 
Invest her with the garb of Statehood and 
Admit her to the Union of the States ! 

President Jennings and Secretary Hendricks go down and bring 
forward from among the people a young woman simply clad in 
pioneer dress, and lead her up before America. 

AMERICA: In the name of the American People I create you a 
State by the name of Indiana ; I place the Star of Statehood on 
your forehead; and I admit you to the Union of the United 
States. 

America places the star upon the young woman's forehead. The 
robes and shield are brought and placed upon her. The two figures 
of the Civil and the Criminal Law advance and take their places on 
either side of her. A horse is brought and she is mounted. America 
takes a new flag, the Pageant Flag of Indiana, unfurls it and gives 
it to Indiana as the sign of Sovereignty. Indiana then turns around 
and America presents her to the Convention and to the People. 
They raise high their arms in acclamation and sing 

THE HYMN TO INDIANA 

To heaven raise thy star-crowned head, 

Superb Indiana! 
Thy future to glory wed 

Through toil ! Praise God ! Hosanna ! 

Arise ! Stand ! Strive ! 

Thy faith revive! 

With courage and decision 

Press onward toward thy vision! 

Arise ! Firm ! True ! 
Thy strength renew ! 
God prosper thy gages 
To serve the coming ages! 

To heaven raise thy star-crowned head, 

Superb Indiana! 
Thy future to glory wed 

Through toil! Praise God! Hosanna! 

[33] 



As the second time the first line is sung, Indiana, attended by the 
Civil and the Criminal Law, rides forward among her people, 
straight down. The Convention close in after her and the people 
swarm in, following her in massed procession. Indiana leads the 
way down to the grandstand, to the left and around, passing in re- 
view before America and the other States. As she passes America 
she inclines her flag and America similarly acknowledges the salute. 
So she passes around until she comes up straight toward America 
again. Then the Hymn being played by the orchestra as a march, 
only without singing, America and the eighteen States ride away to 
the right and out. After a short interval Indiana leads her people 
out, following America and the States. 



[34 1 



EPISODE FOUR 

THE CENTER OF THE STATE 
(1824) 

It is on the White River near the mouth of Fall Creek close by 
John McCormick's cabin. John McCormick and his wife come out 
of the woods near their cabin on the river bank. He has an axe on 
his shoulder; she carries a milk pail. A boy is driving the cow out 
to pasture. A horse browses through. 

McCORMICK: Amos, see thet ar horse don't git too far out into 

the woods. You better hobble him. 
MRS. McCORMICK : Sam, hurry up with that churn ! 

Sam comes in with a rude butter churn and stool. Mrs. Mc- 
Cormick pours the cream into the churn and commences to make 
butter. Amos returns, catches the horse and puts an easy hobble 
on him. George Pogue comes in on horseback. 

POGUE: Hello, the house ! Who keeps the house? 

McCORMICK: Who's yere? Well, George, which way are you 
going? 

POGUE: Over to Conner's to get some corn, 

McCORMICK: Be gone long? 

POGUE: No, only four days, I guess; jest goin' over and straight 
back. Seen anything more of them commissioners? 

McCORMICK: Not for more nor a week. They'd oughta be round 

before long. 
POGUE : Say, John, do yer think there's any chance of our getting 

the capital? 
McCO'RMICK: Don't really think there is, George. I cal'clate 

they decide on the Bluffs. 

There is a call from across the river. "Hello ! Hello, the house !" 
Three men are over there. McCormick goes down to get his boat. 

McCORMICK: That looks to me like Tipton,— and General Bar- 
tholomew, and the third one, — the man from Jackson County, 
Durham. 

He shouts back to them and immediately goes down to the water, 
gets into his boat and rows over. Meantime the other Capital Com- 
missioners come in from the north, — Governor Jennings, George 

[35] 



Hunt of Wayne County, John Conner of Fayette, and Benjamin I, 
Blythe, the Secretary of the Commission, first, with Bill, the negro 
boy, following them; then a little later, Stephen Ludlow of Dear- 
born, John Gilliland of Switzerland County, Frederick Rapp of 
Posey, and Thomas Emison of Knox County. 

MRS. McCORMICK: How do you do. Governor, glad to see ye all 
back again. 

JENNINGS: Thank you, Mrs. McCormick; we are glad to get 
back also. Is John about? 

MRS. McCORMICK: Just across the river to ferry some men over. 

JENNINGS : Oh, yes ! That's the other men, Tipton and Bartholo- 
mew and Durham. 

POGUE : Going to settle it to-day, Governor? 

JENNINGS : I hope they will. Bill, make a fire and cook us some 
dinner. 

MRS. McCORMICK : We have plenty for all. Governor. 

JENNINGS: Oh, we will make out very well. We shot a fine 
buck this morning and shall insist on your accepting of a 
saddle. 

Mrs. McCormick and her children bring out a kettle and other 
cooking articles to help out what the negro has. He makes a camp 
fire and proceeds to cook some venison and to prepare such food as 
he has. The horses are hobbled at one side. One or two Indians 
pass by; they ask and are given something to eat, which they take 
and go on. 

McCormick reaches the bank, and comes up to join the others 
with the three other Commissioners, John Tipton of Harrison, Jo- 
seph Bartholomew of Clark, and Jesse B. Durham of Jackson 
County, and a boy, Williamson Dunn Maxwell, a boy 15 years old. 
There are greetings all around. Other settlers begin to come in, 
some as coming into the new country to settle, some as if already 
settled and coming from their cabins only a few miles away. 
Among them are Jacob Whetzell and Matthias Nowland. All an- 
nounce their approach with the cry, "Hello, the house ! Who keeps 
the house?" The Commissioners gather round the campfire and 
eat without formally sitting down to it. 

JENNINGS: Where is Judge Loughlin? McCormick, have you 
seen Judge Loughlin? He said he would have the survey fin- 
ished by to-day. 

McCORMICK: Not seen him since you were here, Governor, but 
heard of him running his lines down by the Bluffs. Jacob 
Whetzell saw him. 

[36] 



WHETZELL: Yes, he was down there, said he expected to be up 
here to John's about to-day. 

TIPTON : Nice place you've got down there on the Bluffs, Jake. 
WHETZELL: Yes, fine place there; high and dry and good tim- 
ber. We'll have a fine town there, too, some day. 

A herd of deer come down to the water to drink at the other side 
of the river, or pass along. 

McCORMICK: Here comes Judge Loughlin! 

Judge Loughlin with his chain men and axe men come in from 
the south. He carries a chart as well as the transit. He is cordially 
greeted as he comes up. 

HUNT: The lines run, Judge? Survey finished? 

LOUGHLIN : All ready for you. 

HUNT: Alright then. Now, gentlemen, let us come to order! 

TIPTON : I don't mind, Mr. President, just so you don't stop me 
eating this piece of venison steak. 

BARTHOLOMEW: I guess each one knows what he wants. 
There's the three places. I move you, Mr. Chairman, that you 
name the places and we show hand for our preferences. 

HUNT : Well, gentlemen, if that procedure is agreeable, — those in 
favor of Conner's raise their hands. 

John Conner and Stephen Ludlow raise their hands. Blythe an- 
nounces the count each time. One or two Indians, passing by, stop 
and stolidly watch the proceedings for a few minutes and then 
go on. 

BLYTHE: Two. 
HUNT : Fall Creek. 

Gilliland, Bartholomew and Tipton raise their hands. 

BLYTHE: Three. 
HUNT: The Bluffs. 

Durham, Emison and Rapp raise their hands. 

BLYTHE: Three. 

HUNT : Tie between Fall Creek and the Bluffs, gentlemen. 

The interest of the McCormicks and other settlers gets very 
evident; they become quite excited without intruding improperly 
with the Commissioners. 

DURHAM : That place down at the Bluffs is a fine place; it is high, 
and dry, — 

[37] 



TIPTON : Yes, Colonel, but this place here at Fall Creek is nearer 
the center of the State. If we're going to move the Capital 
from Corydon clear up here into the wilderness, miles beyond 
the frontier, that is the chief thing for us to look out for, so's 
when the state is built up and there's towns all through here, it 
may be equal distance and convenient for all. The Capital must 
belong to all the State alike ! 

BARTHOLOMEW: Then, too, there's the best landing for boa. 
down here a piece there is anywhere around in these parts, and 
become a large town in fifty or a hundred years. They'll make 
Fall Creek is a fine mill-stream. The Capital of this State will 
things there; they'll have mills and they'll need some way to 
take their goods to market, to New Orleans and down the river. 
Well, here is the stream for the mills and good navigation in 
the river for transportation to market, — right here. 

NOWLAND: If I might say something, your Honor, — I know I 
ain't got no right to speak, but this here place at Fall Creek's 
the best place of all for the State Capital. I'm from Kaintucky, 
and I tell you if you fix her here, I'll move out here with my 
family next fall and I'll git a lot of other Kaintucky men to 
come along too. (Cheers.) 

CONNER: As it looks like we can't get the Capital to our place, I 
think this here at Fall Creek's my second choice. Nothing 
against your place, Whetzell. 

WHETZELL: I reckon you and me's going to meet each other 
half way, John ! 

TIPTON : Mr. Chairman, I move you that we select this place at 
the mouth of Fall Creek for the location of the new Capital and 
permanent Seat of Government of the State of Indiana. 

ALL: Aye! 

HUNT: Wait a moment, gentlemen. I am happy to find it evident 
that you are all in perfect concert and harmony and suffer no 
interest but that of the public to guide you in your selection, 
but let us have this motion in legal form. Judge Loughlin, will 
you tell us, if you please, what is the correct legal designation 
for this location. 

LOUGHLIN : It is sections 1 and 12, and east and west fractional 
sections 2 and 11, and so much off of the east side of west frac- 
tional section number 3 as will altogether equal in amount four 
entire sections in range 15 north of Range 3, east. 

HUNT: You have heard General Tipton's motion and Judge 
Loughlin's designation of the location. Those who are in fa- 
vor of this location will say "Aye." 

ALL : Aye ! (Loud cheers and general good feeling.) 

HUNT: Now, gentlemen, step up and sign the Secretary's report 
and then a motion to adjourn will be in order. 

[38] 



In turn they all sign the Secretary's report, placing the paper on 
saddle bags or any convenient article for the purpose. The Chair- 
man, George Hunt, then formally hands the report to Governor 
Jennings. 

HUNT: Your Excellency, the Commission appointed by you on 
January 11, 1820, to select a site for the State Capital herewith 
submit to you their report. 

JENNINGS : Gentlemen, in accepting your report I want to thank 
you in behalf of the State of Indiana for the eminent faithful- 
ness and ability with which you have discharged your duties 
under this commission. The Legislature will more formally 
express its appreciation. It hardly seems possible that a better 
choice could have been made. I shall urge the State Treasurer, 
Mr. Samuel Merrill, to remove the executive offices of the gov- 
ernment to this place as soon as it may be practicable, 

BARTHOLOMEW: Mr. Chairman, I move you that the Commis- 
sion appointed for the Location of a Permanent Seat of Gov- 
ernment for the State of Indiana do now adjourn sine die. 

The horses of the Commissioners are brought. As they are 
mounting more and more settlers arrive, passing through to find 
homes in the New Purchase. The greeting is often repeated, "Hello, 
the house! Who keeps the house?" Just as the Commissioners 
are about to ride away, a small ferry flat with a canoe tied along- 
side is rowed up to the river bank. Both are loaded with the house- 
hold goods of two families moving to the mouth of Fall Creek. 

MAN ON BOAT: Hello, the house! Is there a settlement here? 

McCORMICK: Yes, stranger, and welcome! There's going to be 
a big settlement here. 

SEVERAL: This is to be the Capital of the State! 

TIPTON: Yours is the first boat landed at the Seat of Govern- 
ment, and history should record the fact. It is now 6 :45 o'clock 
and I will write it down in my diary. (Cheers.) John, I must 
pay you for that corn and whisky. How much do I owe you? 

McCORMICK: That is sixty-two and a half cents. 

TIPTON : There you are. 

JENNINGS: You are coming with us. Judge? 

LOUGHLIN: Who's to lay out this town, Governor? 

JENNINGS : The Commission consists of James W. Jones, Samuel 
P. Booker and Christopher Harrison. The surveyor will be 
Alexander Ralston, a distinguished engineer who assisted Ma- 
jor L'Enfant in laying out the National Capital at Washington. 

LOUGHLIN : Excellent ! Well, then, I will wait until he comes, so 
as to point out to him the range lines and help him in any way 
I can. 

[39 1 



JENNINGS: That will be very good of you. Goodby, my friends! 

Amid responses of "Goodby" and cheers the Governor and the 
Commissioners ride off, Governor Jennings and the Chairman, 
George Hunt, in front, and the negro, Bill, with his camp and cook- 
ing equipment packed on a horse at the rear. 

New settlers come in continuously. They are told that this is 
the new Capital and many express their intention of remaining. 
Some few have the "aigger." These are kindly treated, but evi- 
dently it is nothing extraordinary. Dr. Isaac Coe, both with his 
large ministrations of Peruvian bark and wine and with his cheer- 
ful, reassuring friendliness, attends to the sick in an indefatigable, 
self-sacrificing manner. Once in a while an Indian appears, but 
only for a moment. A distant call is heard and soon the Hon. 
Christopher Harrison, the old Scotchman, Alexander Ralston, and 
his assistant, Elias P. Fordham, ride in, their instruments on a led 
horse. 

HARRISON : Hello, the house ! 

LOUGHLIN : Here they are ! Ah, Judge Harrison, glad to see 
you ! I have finished my part of the work and now turn it over 
to you and to — 

HARRISON : Mr. Ralston ; Judge Loughlin. 

LOUGHLIN : To you and to Mr. Ralston to finish. 

HARRISON : I have the honor to have been appointed one of 
the Commissioners to lay out the new Capital, but none of the 
others has thus far appeared. However, that need not disturb 
us. Mr. Ralston here is the only man we really need. We will 
proceed with the work. 

McCORMICK : What's the name of the town to be, do you know, 
Judge? 

HARRISON: Yes, John— 

MANY: What is it? What is the name? 

HARRISON : Indianapolis ! 

ALL: What? Say it again! 

HARRISON : Indianapolis I It means the City of Indiana ! Indi- 
anapolis! Jeremiah Sullivan of Madison and Samuel Merrill 
suggested it. 

ALL : Indianapolis ! Hooray ! Indianapolis ! (Cheers.) 

HARRISON (to the crowd) : My friends, we shall want men with 
axes to clear the streets as soon as they are laid out. Who is 
ready? 

MANY MEN: I! I! I! We are ready! 
[40] 



Those who have axes wave them in the air; those who have not 
go to get them. A horn is heard blowing far off in the woods, and 
then nearer and nearer. 

SEVERAL: It is Drake! It is the Post! It is Aaron Drake! 
(Cheers.) 

Aaron Drake rides in blowing his long tin horn vociferously. 
His saddle-bags are full of mail, which he begins to distribute 
among the people, calling their names. 

DRAKE: Mr. Merrill is a-comin' with the State Treasury and all 
the papers, and John Douglas, the State printer, with his press 
and all. I passed them on the road. They had to go slow, but 
I have made it from Conner's in only three days and a half. 
They'll be here soon, though, — to-day. 

SEVERAL : More nor twenty miles a day ! That's goin' ! Aaron's 
the one to bring the mail! How's your ole hoss? 

Johnnie Hager drives his ox-team in from the direction of Cin- 
cinnati. He is greeted with welcoming shouts. 

HAGER: Gee! Haw! Whoa! 

The women especially gather around his ox-cart to buy from 
him the groceries, cloth and other necessities which were obtainable 
only by means of his fast ox express. 

Cheers break out at the edge of the crowd, as Mr. Samuel Mer- 
rill with his wagons conveying his wife and three children and the 
Treasury and papers of the State of Indiana comes driving in. His 
dog, Ben, perfectly black and stump-tailed, trots alongside. With 
him also is John Douglas, the State Printer and his wife and three 
children, his goods, and press. They have altogether three wagons, 
— one, the State wagon with four horses, and the other two with 
two horses each, — and one saddle horse. The cheering is long and 
lusty. Mr. Merrill acknowledges the welcome with cordiality, yet 

with great dignity and modesty. 

• 

MERRILL: I thank you, my kind friends, for this most hearty 
welcome! (Cheers.) I bring the Treasury of the State, the 
archives and the official papers. Your town is now indeed the 
Capital of Indiana. Here shall indeed the people of all sections 
gather to build up for future days a great Commonwealth. I 
have come to live here the rest of my life. I have brought my 
family, my books, all I possess. As you and I do our part, just 
so in our children's days, and their children's days shall this 
town of Indianapolis be in truth the City of Indiana, the City 
of ALL Indiana! (Long and prolonged cheering.) Well, 

[41] 



John! How are you, Hannah? Glad to see you again, Sam! 
Ah, Dr. Coe ! I know every one here blesses your name ! 

DR. COE : Well, Mr. Merrill, I do what I can for them. I am truly 
delighted to see you here. 

MERRILL: There are great times ahead! 

DR. COE: There are, indeed! If we could only get rid of this fever 
and ague! It is carrying away a good many, — all over the 
State, I hear. But when that is past, we shall read and talk! 

MERRILL: I have brought my library ! 

DR. COE: Good! Good! How many volumes have you? 

MERRILL: Over 2,000 volumes. 

DR. COE : Wonderful ! You and Calvin Fletcher have fine collec- 
tions of literature! But, Mr. Merrill, there is sad need for a 
school here. 

MERRILL: What! Is there no school? 
DR. COE: There is no one here competent to teach school! 
SEVERAL: If you would only undertake it, Mr. Merrill! Oh, 
Mr. Merrill, do undertake it ! 

MERRILL : Well, if I can make time without interfering with my 
duties as State Treasurer. There is certainly a close connec- 
tion between the proper education of the children and economy 
in State finances. I will try it, — until we can find some one 
more competent. (Cheers, especially from the women and 
children.) Now, come, we must get these boxes into good 
shelter, and we must settle ourselves in our new homes. 

HARRISON: Come, my friends, Mr. Ralston is ready for us to 
begin clearing Washington Street and the Circle! There shall 
be the center of the city which is the center and meeting place 
of the State. 

There are loud and prolonged cheers again, as the men with their 
axes go off to clear the trees out of Washington Street and out of 
the Circle, and the women and children go along to watch or to 
their own various occupations, and the wagons in which Mr. Mer- 
rill has transferred the Government of Indiana go on to unload at 
his cabin at Washington and Tennessee Streets. 



With the music of Death and Oblivion again the Forms sweep 
over the scene, leaving no vestige of the days when Indianapolis 
was made to be the new Capital of Indiana at the center of the 
State, the pioneer Hoosier strains of "Ole Dan Tucker" being heard 
as an obbligato in the music. 



[42] 



EPISODE FIVE 

THE DAYS OF THE FLATBOATS 
(1830) 

From one side come two men and from the other three more of 
various ages, followed by women and children of their families, go- 
ing down to the river bank. The men are carrying carpenter tools, 
the women lighter farm tools, such as rakes or baskets. 

BENJAMIN : Well, Abram, reckon we'd better be finishing up the 

flatboat and starting down to Orleens. 
ABRAM : Yes, it's about time. Might as well take the water on 

the early flood! 
BENJAMIN: 'Twon't take us long to put the last touches on her. 

Pole her down here, boys. 

Two of the sons run up the bank a short distance and quickly 
pole down a flatboat which wants but little of completion. The men 
all get to work on it, putting on the deckhouse, finishing the big 
oars and the steering sweep. While they are working, a flatboat 
comes swiftly drifting down the river, a man at the steering oar at 
the stern, others sitting around on the deck. They cheer as they 
pass and the people on shore answer in turn. 

ABRAM : Hi ! Eben ! We'll be along pretty soon ! Tie up at the 
levee foot of Canal Street ! See you there ! 

EBEN: Alright! 

A hay wagon is driven down to the river near the flatboat. At 
about the same time a drove of hogs are driven through from one 
side to the other. 

BENJAMIN : Hurry up with them hogs, if any of that meat's goin' 
down on this load ! Don't know's we'll have much room. 

ABRAM : Now that hay ! Pack it tight ! Get out of the way there, 
you young uns! Go help yer ma an' the gals bring down the 
stuff! 

The women and girls bring down food for the men on the trip 
and small things to be sold, — a basket of eggs, a half dozen hens, a 
firkin of butter. 

[43] 



TOMMY: Here's my gingseng root. Where'll I put it? 

BENJAMIN : Chuck it up there in front. Mother, yer keeping the 
list of what we put on, so we can make up the counts right? 

MOTHER: I've got it all, Ben. 

JIMMY : Hi, Tommy. I wisht 'it I c'd go ! 

TOMMY : I'm a-goin' next year; or year after that. Pap said I c'd. 

JIMMY: Ma! c'n I go? I wanta go. 

MOTHER: No, you can not. What'd you do coming back? You 
could not walk all the way from New Orleens to Indiany. Time 
enough for you when you're older. 

JIMMY : Aw, but they might not have flatboats when I'm grown up. 

MOTHER: Don't be afraid, as long as Indiany raises com and 
hogs, they'll sell in New Orleens, and they'll go by flatboat. 

ABRAM: Where's thet ar corn? Yell to Sam to bring along that 
corn! 

Several of the youngsters promptly begin and continue to obey 
Sam comes driving a wagon loaded with corn. They proceed to 
load that on the flatboat. Another wagon of apples, great round red 
apples, in barrels, is driven down. 

MOTHER: Those are the kind that Johnny himself likes best. 

BENJAMIN: Yes, them's Rambos. 

SALLY: Who's Johnny? 

BENJAMIN: Johnny Appleseed? An old man who planted or- 
chards all through Ohio and Indiana before the pioneers came. 
Went round all by himself. He started our orchard there years 
ago. 

ABRAM : He started our orchard too. Father told me how he was 
coming through the forest once and found this man, looked like 
a beggar, a-setting out a orchard, an' he asked him who he was 
doing that for, and he said, for the first man and woman that 
came along and wanted it, so father and mother said this was 
where they'd settle. 

SALLY : Look at that oriole ! 

TOMMY : They's lots of orioles in the orchard this year. 

ABRAM: Johnny brought them too. When I was a youngster, 
there was no birds of thet kind in Indiana, — orioles, and robins, 
and bluebirds. Johnny brought the orchards and the orchards 
brought the birds. 

MOTHER: Made it a lot more home-like. 

BENJAMIN : Now hold back the rest of those apples until we get 
that hog packed. Give us those shoulders first and then the 
bacon. 

ABRAM (singing) : Hog an' hominy! 

Hog an' hominy! 
Make the cotton nigger grow! 

[44] 



BENJAMIN: That's what they do ! 

ABRAM: Thet's what! 

BENJAMIN : We send pork and corn to the South to feed the nig- 
gers ; they grow cotton and send it to New England to be 'fac- 
tured into goods ; Yankees send it along the lakes an' down the 
Ohio to Indiany to help raise more hog an' hominy, an' so it 
goes round an' round. 

ABRAM : Thet's it : Indiany — New Orleens — Boston — Indiany ! 

A half dozen men come swinging along at a good pace up from 
the south. They have staves in their hands and bundles on their 
backs or on their staves. They are returning home from New Or- 
leans. All greet each other jovially. A last lot of pork shoulders 
and bacon are brought down, and the last loading of the boat is done 
as they talk. The men homeward bound go on up the river. 

HOMECOMERS: Hello! Hello! What kind of a trip d'you have ? 

FARMER: Fine trip, most of the way. Bad about Island No. 10. 

HOMECOMERS: What they giving for corn now? 

FARMERS : Corn's going up. We got two bits and a fip, 

HOMECOMERS: Any trouble coming back? 

FARMERS : Just a little fight ; nothing serious, though 't might ha' 
been. 

HOMECOMERS: How long you been? 

FARMERS : Five weeks ; going right smart pace. 

HOMECOMERS : Sold your boat lumber easy? 

FARMERS : Sold the boat first thing when we tied up at the Levee. 

While this is going on near the river bank, a stage-coach drives 
slowly in from the north. The horses are jaded and worn; the 
wheels are clotted with mud. The feW passengers are exhausted 
with fatigue and some of the men are trailing along behind with a 
couple of fence rails to help the coach across deep mud-holes. The 
driver cracks his whip in vain over his team, as they slowly drag 
along. They present a strong contrast to the fresh cheer of the peo- 
ple who travel by water. 

MOTHER: The poor things! Won't you stop and rest? 
ABRAM : They wouldn't have time. 

The stage-coach passes on and disappears. The farming people 
stand a moment looking after it. 

When all is ready, the flatboat is pushed out a little ways into 
the stream. The men who are going down to New Orleans say 
goodby to their families. One man takes his place at the steering 

[45] 



sweep and two others at the big oars and they row it out into the 
current, singing "Old Quebec" or some other song of the day. An- 
other flatboat loaded high with the farm products of Indiana comes 
down the river. There are cheers from both boats and the people 
on shore who are waving goodby to their own men. The men rush 
to the oars on both and there is a little race between the two as 
they drift down the river out of sight; while the people on shore 
cheer and wave. Then they return home together with the empty 
wagons. 



[46] 



Ill 

ST. FRANCIS OF THE ORCHARDS 

The music begins with a high chord, brilliant, held tremolo with 
shimmering effect while ascending arpeggios of harps and strings 
topped by stirring peals of the trumpets give voice to the Celestial 
motif. After this pronouncement the music passes into strains sug- 
gestive of the wilderness. From the woods there comes an old man, 
alone, leading a horse. While very old and quite feeble, he is a man 
of alert, fine, virile character, with quick but gentle manner. He is 
gaunt and beardless. He is in rags, which, however, he wears un- 
consciously with noble dignity. He leads his horse with one hand 
and carries a branch of apple blossoms and a book in the other. The 
horse is laden with bags of appleseeds, with bundles of apple sprouts 
and with the simple tools for the laying out and the care of orchards. 
The harness is of rope and in the bridle is a spray of apple blossoms. 
It is John Chapman, sometimes called by the Indians and the pio- 
neers Johnny Appleseed. 

He stops as he comes in, looks about him and admires the view 
up the river, gazing at it long and quietly with the happy smile of a 
joyous nature. He looks about him again, selects a secluded, sunny 
nook suited to his purpose, ties his horse to a tree and begins to 
prepare the ground for his seedlings. As he digs up the ground 
and crumbles it in his hand to soften it, gleams of the Celestial 
Music are heard from time to time in the orchestra. As he sows the 
appleseed and plants the apple sprouts, here and there through the 
underbrush near him, unseen by him, appear Angels holding up 

their hands with branches of apple blossoms in blessing over him. 
For only a moment are they seen, then are gone; for another mo- 
ment again and then are gone. 

When he has finished his work, he kneels down by the little plant- 
ing, the book and the spray of apple blossoms in his hand, and 
prays over the seed he has planted, for blessings on his efforts and 
on the people for whom he would make beautiful and pleasant the 
way before them. With his prayer the music becomes simple and 
straightforward, in spirit like an old New England hymn, while 
again the Angels appear behind him with branches of apple blos- 
soms in their hands stretched out over him. Exhausted for the 
moment with his labor and his feeling, he sinks down weak upon 
the ground. 

[47] 



With music based upon the Pioneer motif, along the road come 
a group of pioneers, Quakers, men, women and children, some on 
horseback, some in a Conestoga wagon, some on foot, making their 
way into the wilderness of Indiana to make for themselves and 
their children a home. They see the old man sunk down upon the 
ground, stop their caravan, and go to him in simple kindliness to 
help him. The Indiana theme is heard reminiscently in the music. 
He revives under their friendly ministrations. Then sitting up, he 
attracts their attention to the little orchard he has just planted, 
urges upon them in some detail the proper care of it, holds out the 
apple blossoms to one of the women and tells one of the children 
where they will find some nice red juicy apples in the pack on his 
horse. Bringing a stool for him from the Conestoga wagon, the 
people seat him on it and gather around him. 

He caresses the children at his knee, playing with them, showing 
them how the pink of the blossoms develops into the glowing red 
of the apple and then into the healthy rosiness of their cheeks, 
teaching them the wonder and beauty of Nature, as if with the 
words in mind, "And in the midst He planted a Garden." Then he 
stretches out his hands; they all kneel about him and he offers a 
prayer for them and for his wilderness. Again the Prayer Music 
rises, simple in form and spirit as before, but richer in harmony and 
content, increasingly more and more glorious, the strains of suppli- 
cation and the gleams of the Celestial Music meeting and answering 
each other, as again the Angels appear behind the old man and pour 
out in numbers here and there through all the woodside. 

The music quiets down. The Celestial Music alone sounds 
through the air as in exaltation of spirit the old man half rises from 
his seat, gazing up into the sky and one hand stretched out toward 
his little planting. Off to one side in the edge of the woods appears 
for a moment, among the Angels there, a young girl, simply clad in 
clothes of a long time before and holding in her hand a branch of 
apple blossoms. The old man stretches out his hand to her, and 
then one hand stretched out to the girl and one to his planting, he 
sinks back into the arms of the simple pioneer people about him. 
The Angels surge forward around him. Trumpets peal forth 
through the Celestial Music their notes of triumphant renuncia- 
tion. The men tenderly lift the body of the old orchardist, lay it in 
the wagon, and depart on their way. The Angels hover about the 
place a moment more while the Celestial Music still re-echoes 
through the wilderness and then disappear back into the forest 
undergrowth. 

[48] 



EPISODE SIX 

THE CANALS AND THE RAILROADS 

(1837-1847) 

Some men come through with scythes, cradles and other har- 
vesting implements of about 1840. Coming from the other direction 
on horseback comes a candidate for election. 

FERGUSON: Hello! Who keeps here? 

FARMER: Hello, stranger! Won't you light? 

FERGUSON : Don't know but I might. My name's Ferguson and 
I'm a-running for the Legislature. 

FARMER: Oh, you air! Well, we're glad to see yer! T'other 
feller was by just a bit ago. He almighty pitched into your 
party for nigh onto wrecking the whole State with your canal 
system. 

FERGUSON : Why, my friends, thet a'r canal is the greatest thing 
for you farmers ever was or could be. Is not Indiana raising 
more farm produce nor ever before? More hogs an' more corn? 

SEVERAL : That's right. That's right. 

FARMER: Wall, I know I ain't complaining, just so's I get a 
chance to sell my stuff. 

FERGUSON : That's it exactly ! How are you going to get your 
corn an' hogs to New Orleans if you don't have canals? How 
is any Indiana farmer goin' to? We got to have canals an' we 
have got to have them right off, and we got to have them all 
over the State. We can not favor one county and slight an- 
other. My friends, don't you know that there is less water in 
this here river than there was when you was a boy? And you 
send your stuff in bigger loads and on bigger boats than your 
dad did then. My friends, you need WATER! and canals is 
the only way you're a-goin' to git it! 

FARMER: Wall, thet ar sounds almighty reasonable, but so did 
what t'other feller said when he was a-talking. He said he'd 
be back this way. I'd kinder like to hear you two fellers talk- 
ing together right same time. 

ALL : Hey ! Hooray ! 

ONE: Here, Sam, you git on the plow horse and put it after him! 
Bring him back ! Tell him t'other feller's yere ! We'll have a 
jawin' ! 

Sam does as bid, quickly unhitches the horse, jumps on his back 
and bounces away at a plowed field gallop. A canal boat comes into 

[49] 



view on the canal opposite, towed slowly along by two horses. On 
it are people sitting on deck and others are walking along at one 
side. When just opposite, the canal boat stops, a plank is put across, 
some people go on and others come off the boat carrying their hand 
luggage. These come down toward the river with evident intention 
of crossing. 

ONE MAN : Them folks going t' take the stage, 't 'pears. 

Sam comes back with the other candidate. There is a cheer. The 
two candidates bow stiffly to each other, pull down their coats and 
clear their throats, neither really relishing this extempore encoun- 
ter. Other Hoosiers, men, women and children, come in; quite a 
crowd gathers. 

MITCHELL: I am delighted, my friends, to come back and dis- 
cuss this little matter with my opponent! 

FERGUSON : This is the first time you've been delighted when I 
was in the neighborhood. I was al'ays a-looking for you ! 

MITCHELL : Well, it will not take long to show who was doing 
the looking and who was doing the running! I am sorry to 
say I shall have to take the stage when it comes. My engage- 
ments call for me up the National Road to-morrow, but that 
will be plenty of time! Now, sir, will you speak first? 

FERGUSON : Oh, you can speak first, if you like. 

MITCHELL: No, you. 

FERGUSON: No, no; I beg you proceed. 

Both are looking around for the stage or anything that will re- 
lieve the situation. 

FARMER: Wall, he says the canals will be the making of the 
State, an' — 

MITCHELL: The making of the State! — they will be the ruin 
of the State ! More than $8,000,000 was spent in one bill of the 
Legislature there in 1836 by this man and his political friends, 
the "Wabash Band!" Let him explain "the Eating Brigade" if 
he can! Canals! 

FERGUSON : I believe the gentleman himself voted for the Inter- 
nal Improvement Bill of 1836, on condition that his own district 
get a railroad. Does he mean to impugn the character of the 
Fund Commissioners? — men like Samuel Hanna of Fort 
Wayne, and David H. Maxwell of Bloomington? And David 
Burr, of Indianapolis? Now I am just a plain ordinary Hoosier 
like you, and I — judge — men. I know Samuel Hanna; I know 
David Maxwell; and I am willing to trust the destinies of my 
State and my own welfare to their guidance ! (Great cheering, 
long repeated, and vociferous.) 

[50] 



MITCHELL : I commend the gentle, confiding character of my op- 
ponent. I should like to ask him if his trust has gone to the ex- 
tent of his personally investing his own money in these projects ! 

FERGUSON: Yes! I have. 

MITCHELL: Ah, he has. Then, my friends, I think it is clear 
without further argument on my part why my friend is so en- 
thusiastic in his support of the canal system. He's got money 
invested in it. I confess I should be also, were I in his posi- 
tion. 

FARMER: By cracky, he's got 'im! (There is an outburst of 
anger.) 

FERGUSON : And I repeat, I HAVE, and so have YOU, and YOU 
and YOU, I'll warrant; and every enterprising man in Indiana 
who had money to invest, if not by directly buying stock, then 
by buying land near the canals, or some way, so as to be ready 
to take advantage of the boom when it comes. I'll bet our crit- 
ical friend here himself has money in it. 

MITCHELL: I have not. Canals? No, no! 

FERGUSON: In the railroad then! 

MITCHELL : That is another matter. We are not discussing rail- 
roads. 

FERGUSON : But we are going to! Let me tell you— 

MITCHELL: Don't you shake your fist at me! 

FERGUSON : I will shake my fist at you if I please ! (He stops, 
however.) Are you to be guided by experience in serious pub- 
lic problems or are we to follow the absurd speculations of 
visionaries? Look at New York! The Erie Canal has added 
three times as much to the value of the land as the canal cost. 
A traveler I met on the stage coach only the other day told me 
that on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal as far as his eye could 
reach he saw an unbroken line of canal boats going East. Right 
at our doors, Ohio has completed two magnificent canals from 
Lake Erie to the Ohio River, and they are paying handsomely! 
Experience says "Build canals ! Borrow money, if necessary, 
but build canals !" Indiana has never been content, and I pray 
God never will be content anywhere but in the front. (Cheers.) 
Am I right? 

CROWD : That's right ! Right you are ! 

FERGUSON : Indiana will have, as soon as these canals are fin- 
ished, the best canal system in America, or in the World ! (Big 
cheers.) Indiana will be THE CANAL STATE ! Now, damn 
you! what you got to say to that? 

MITCHELL: I will call you to account for that remark after this 
is over, and damn YOU ! I will lick you out o' your breeches ! 

CROWD: Hi! Hi! Go it, mister! Don't take that from him ! Hit 
him! 

[511 



MITCHELL: That will do! Not now! Indiana and all these 
States send their produce down to New Orleans in March, and 
there is so much produce comes down into New Orleans at one 
time that the whole city can not take care of it. What's the re- 
sult? Prices go down and goods spoil! You know that your- 
self. Don't you send your stuff down to New Orleans ahead of 
the others and sell while prices hold — so as to sell while you 
can sell at all? Of course you do. And this man here, and his 
party tell you the thing to do is to spend millions of dollars on 
canals, to stake the financial credit of the State, so that more 
men can send more stuff down to New Orleans to crowd the 
market still more! Is there any sense in that? A way to New 
York, new markets is •what "we want ! 

FERGUSON: The Wabash and Erie Canal connecting with the 
lakes and the Erie Canal in New York will do that! 

MITCHELL: But railroads will do it better. Whether by horse 
or by steam power railroads will transport goods all the year 
round, not only when there is a spring freshet in the Ohio and 
the Mississippi Rivers ! 

CROWD: Steam! Ha, ha, ha! Steam! 

MITCHELL: Yes, steam! 

FERGUSON: Now, my friends, you can judge for yourself which 
of us is crazy. Which is cheaper, to let a ton of produce float 
down stream on a boat or to hitch a horse to it, or two horses, 
or four horses, and haul it up hill and down hill to your market? 
The National Road is a great, a wonderful thing ! But you can 
not expect to have a net-work of national highways. One east 
and west, uniting the Union; and some day maybe one also 
north and south ! But in the good old days when your fathers 
and my father came out into the wilderness and made the State 
of Indiana, the rivers were the highways and they vdll be 
until the end of time ! But steam ! Steam ! Why — 

MITCHELL: Yes, steam! The gentleman knows perfectly well 
that steam has been used for years for power on boats. You 
come back on steamboats from New Orleans every time you go 
down. He knows that in Maryland and in New York a steam 
railroad is in operation right now to-day, and that here in In- 
diana at Lawrenceburg the thing has been successfully dem- 
onstrated. 

FERGUSON: Oh, yes, that is all true. But we are talking about 
practical problems of transporting the farm produce of the en- 
tire State. Every one here knows that what you say is non- 
sense. It is not practical ; it is visionary, 

MITCHELL: It is not visionary ! You will see for yourselves in a 
short time, when this Madison & Indianapolis Railroad is com- 
pleted, you will see that it is practical. (All laugh.) It is the 
truth ! (All laugh.) 

FERGUSON : It is not the truth. 

MITCHELL : Do you mean to call me a liar? 

[52] 



A turmoil is ripening rapidly. Some threateningly taking Fer- 
guson's part; others while not exactly taking the part of Mitchell, 
yet energetically arranging for a fair fight. The excitement is inter- 
rupted by the horn sounding clear and prosperous of the stage 
coach on the National Highway. People have been coming in and 
increasing the crowd during the discussion, some evidently intend- 
ing to take the stage. All is bustle and running around. The fight 
and the merits of canals vs. railroads are promptly forgotten in im- 
minent expectation of the arrival of the great event of the day, the 
stage of the National Road. The horn is heard again quite near, and 
with prancing horses and whirl of whip the stage drives in amid the 
cheers of the crowd. The driver jumps down from his seat. Small 
boys gather around him with awe and around the horses. Hostlers 
run out and change the horses. People get off and out of the stage 
coach; others get in. Some one in the crowd recognizes Samuel 
Merrill, the president of the Madison & Indianapolis Railroad, to 
whom Mitchell goes up and speaks. 

SEVERAL : There's Samuel Merrill ! There's Hugh McCulloch of 
Fort Wayne! 

There are cheers for both, cheers and call for a speech. Mr. Mer- 
rill mounts to the top of the stage-coach to address the crowd. 

MERRILL: I thank you, my kind friends, for this compliment. 
(Cheers.) I will take this opportunity to make an announce- 
ment to you which I am sure you will be glad to hear. The 
Madison & Indianapolis Railroad is nearly completed ! (Cheers.) 
In a very short time now the tracks will reach this place and the 
steam locomotive hauling a train of several successive cars 
loaded with people and their personal property will arrive. 
(Cheers, long and loud.) Further, the Madison & Indianapolis 
Railroad Company will on the day the road is completed take 
passengers along the whole or any part of the route for one- 
third the usual rates, and they will take families or parts of fam- 
ilies at the same rate for the ensuing week, with the understand- 
ing that ladies alone, if their number shall be sufficient for the 
purpose, shall occupy the covered cars. If any person shall 
wish to take a ride on the afternoon of the day of the celebra- 
tion, they may ride to Franklin and back at twenty-five cents 
each. (Loud cheers as he descends.) 

PEOPLE IN CROWD : Oh, to think of that ! I want to go ! . . . 
I would not dare ! . . . But you can go to Franklin and back 
for twenty-five cents ! . . . But you might get killed going or 
coming. And if anything happened I would not know how to 
stop the cars. I'd want to get off. . . , The train goes at a 
turable speed, I heard tell. ... If anything would happen it 
would kill you. . . . I'd ask him not to go so fast! . . . 

[53] 



They goes ten miles an hour, they say ! . . . I don't think it's 
right to go so fast ; it's tempting God ! 

There are cries for McCulloch, and he mounts the stage as Mer- 
rill comes down. 

McCULLOCH : I thank you, my friends. I am just passing through 
from Fort Wayne to Terre Haute on the errands of the State 
Bank. I am not much of an orator, but — (Cries of Yes, you 
are!) — I thank you! — but I want to say that I believe that this 
opening of the railroad from Madison to Indianapolis is one of 
the most important days in the history of Indiana. This rail- 
road and the other railroads that I am sure will follow it will 
bind our capital city to the whole State as it has never been 
heretofore. Indianapolis from the very beginning has been 
isolated. This will be so no longer. The management of this 
daring enterprise could not be in safer hands than in those of 
my friends, Mr. Merrill and his associates, and I foresee that in 
time Indiana will have its network of railroads all over the 
State, and by railroads running east and west through the State 
be the highway between the East and the farther West. 

Again there are loud cheers. The stage is ready to proceed. The 
driver mounts to his seat and cracks his whip. All clear out of the 
way. The stage dashes off. The two candidates go along together 
with the stage. Just at the last moment a family of flustered father, 
fat mother, and several children with multitudinous baggage, comes 
running out of breath to catch the stage. The young ones stumble 
and fall and are upbraided therefor by their parents. Baggage is 
spilled as they come, and it is everybody's fault. At the last they 
stand victims of fate, disheartened, watching the stage coach disap- 
pear down the road. 

Men are seen laying the track of the railroad which has now 
quite reached the grounds. A cannon begins to boom. 

CROWD: The train is going! The cars are coming! Hooray! 
Hooray ! 

Samuel Merrill and other officials come in a formal procession. 
Among them is Henry Ward Beecher. Many other people also come 
in and the crowd gather to w^itness the final ceremonies of opening 
the railroad. Mr. Merrill takes a hammer and a spike from the fore- 
man. 

MERRILL: I now lay the last rail and drive the last spike that 
completes the Madison & Indianapolis Railroad. 

He drives the spike. There are loud cheers. The whistle of the 
engine is heard and the ringing of the bell and the first train rolls in, 

[54] 



and stops. People pack the cars and there is much cheering and 
waving of flags. The engine blows off steam. 

A MAN : Look out ! She's a-going to turn ! 

The crowd scramble back away from the engine. A woman falls 
back over a basket of eggs. There is great confusion and excite- 
ment for a moment and then all cautiously edge up again to examine 
the iron horse. 

MERRILL: Now, those who are to ride back to Franklin and to 
Madison — all aboard! Take your places! Good-by, Mr. 
Beecher. Will you not say something to the people — one fare- 
well word? 

BEECHER: My dear friends — you are more than friends to me! 
You are my youth, you are the promise of my life ! I leave you 
with much sorrow though I go eager for the new opportunities 
that await me. I go on the first railroad train out of Indian- 
apolis, but also the trains will, I trust, bring me back to you 
again many times. I shall never forget you, my friends — you 
especially, my young men ! We have grown and struggled and 
won our way together. I love you all. Good-by! God bless 
you ; God bless us all ! 

People crowd up to say good-by to the preacher. He and his 
family taking their baggage, get into the train. The engine whis- 
tles, the bell rings, and the train slowly backs out. 

WOMAN: Oh! ! ! It's going backward! Let me off! 

Mid loud cheers the train departs, the people following after to 
see it as long as they can. The men meantime quietly take up the 
rails. All go away one way or another. 



With the music of Death and Oblivion, the Forms again sweep 
over the scene leaving no vestige of the days of the Canals and the 
First Railroads, "Long, Long Ago" being heard as an obbligato on 
the music. . 



[55] 



EPISODE SEVEN 
THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 

From one side Levi Coffin, the great Quaker, comes out as from 
his house at Newport looking ahead; from the other side comes a 
young fellow, his son, Jesse, as returning from an errand. Coffin 
walks back with his son. 

COFFIN: Well, son, those men gone? 

SON : Yes, they rode off down toward Centerville. One of them 
asked me who I was. I told him my name v/ah Jesse Coffin. 
"A son of Levi Coffin?" he says. "I am," I told him. Then he 
asked if there was any runaway niggers at our house. 

COFFIN : And what did thee say to that? I hope thee stuck to the 
truth. 

SON : I told him I had not seen any. And I have not. 

COFFIN (laughing) : He might have known by that answer as well 
as by the name that thee is a son of mine and thy mother's ! I 
am sometimes in doubt, Jesse, when I am dealing with these 
slave-drivers, lest by deceiving them I be not plainly lying. 
However, I never have a doubt in my mind that it is right to 
feed the hungry, to shelter the homeless, to clothe the naked 
and to help those whom I can. — Come on ! They have gone. 

He waves in signal as he calls, and a hay wagon comes out. It 
is loaded with hay and several negro men and women are on it. Mrs. 
Coffin and others of the household also come out. 

COFFIN : Has thee left plenty of room inside for them in case they 
need shelter on the road? Do not take all my hay away ! Leave 
some for the horses and cattle ! 

DRIVER : There is ample room inside. 

COFFIN: Good! Jesse tells me the slave-hunters have gone on, 
but be wary ; they may turn back. Aunt Rachel, does thy ankle 
feel better where it was cut and wounded by the chain and ball? 

AUNT RACHEL: God bress you, massa, it's pretty sore, but it 
feels powerful lot better than it did ! 

Dr. Henry H. Way rides in from the south, dismounts and takes 
out liniment and bandages from his saddle-bags. 

WAY : Just starting, are they? I wanted to fix up Aimt Rachel's 
ankle again before she left. 

[56] 



Dr. Way examines Aunt Rachel's wound and rebandages it. At 
the same time a lookout is kept up the road. 

LOOKOUT: Hi! Levi! There's some horsemen coming down the 
road! 

COFFIN : Get in quickly and start on. Keep calm and unconcerned. 
Good-by ! God will protect you ! 

NEGROES : God bless you, massa! God bless you, Aunt Katy ! 

The hay load is opened and the negroes secreted inside. Mrs. 
Coffin personally sees that Aunt Rachel gets in safely and provides 
them with food for the way. In a moment there is seen on the load 
only the driver and another white man on top of the hay. They 
drive off to the north. 

COFFIN : John, do not spoil that hay by sticking thy fork too deep 
into it ! Catherine, it were best thee send those girls that came 
last night up into the further corn-field off of our place and se- 
crete them there. 

Mrs. Coffin goes into the house and immediately returns with 
two negro girls, worn out with fatigue, in rags, and terrified for 
their lives, and starts them off on their way through the bushes up 
along the river. 

MRS. COFFIN : Go right up there, and you will be safe. We will 
take care of you. Do not fear! 

As she returns, several men on horseback in the frock coats and 
broad-brimmed hats of the South ride in abruptly from the north, 
passing the hay wagon as they come. One of them rides up to Levi 
Coffin. Other people, neighbors, gather around him. 

SLAVE-HUNTER: Have you seen any stray horses around here? 
COFFIN: No, friend, I have not. Is thee not from Kentucky? 
SLAVE-HUNTER : Yes, we are. 

COFFIN : Does thee think that horses would stray so far north as 
this place? 

SLAVE-HUNTER: Have you seen any runaway slaves pass this 
way? 

COFFIN: I have seen many people passing by going in both di- 
rections. Some indeed TOLD me they were slaves, as also they 
told me of cruel and inhuman treatment they had received at 
the hands of those they called their masters, but the law of In- 
diana does not admit that a negro can tell the truth, so how 
could I know that they were slaves any more than I could be- 
lieve Southerners to be capable of such brutality as they as- 
serted. 

[57] 



SLAVE-HUNTER: You are notorious as a nigger-stealer. You 
harbor runaway slaves and help them on their way to Canada. 

COFFIN : I help as many people who are in distress and who apply 
to me as I can, regardless of color. I would help thee if thee 
came to me destitute and in misery. So does the Bible direct 
me to do. How does thy Bible read? 

SLAVE-HUNTER: You deliberately violate the Fugitive Slave 
Law and you shall pay the penalty. Once a negro reaches Levi 
Coffin's house nothing is ever seen of him again. 

COFFIN : No one can prove or will claim, however, friend, that I 
murder them or otherwise unkindly dispose of them. 

SLAVE-HUNTER: Damn you, you have slaves in your house 
now! 

ANOTHER: You damned Yankee— 

COFFIN : No, friend, I am a Southerner. I come from Carolina. 

Two of the slave-hunters start toward Levi Coffin's house. 

COFFIN : Friends, I am not willing that people go into my house 
without my invitation. I warn you! You attempt it at your 
peril. 

SLAVE-HUNTER : You have runaway slaves in there now. 

COFFIN : I will bring out my colored servants for thee to see. But 
thee knows the full requirements of the law as well as I do, and 
I warn thee not to give me occasion to charge thee with at- 
tempted kidnapping. Catherine, will thee bring out all the col- 
ored people we have in the house? 

Mrs. Coffin goes in and returns with a colored cook, a man and a 
younger girl. 

SLAVE-HUNTER : You have other niggers hidden here. 

MRS. COFFIN: These are all the colored people we have in the 
house or on the place. 

There is some private conferring among the slave-hunters, one 
evidently urging the claiming of the girl, referring to affidavits, but 
the others are clearly afraid to risk the chance. 

SLAVE-HUNTERS: She would fit this description. . . . The 
prize is high, and worth the risk. . . . We could sell her for 
$1,000, maybe $1,200, once we got her across the river. 

COFFIN: Consider carefully whether any of these are persons 
whom you have a right to touch, and also the consequences to 
yourselves if you make any mistake! 

MRS. COFFIN : Eliza is a free girl. She— 

COFFIN: No, Catherine, let them consider and decide for them- 
selves. 

[58] 



The chief slave-hunter turns abruptly on his horse and rides away 
with an oath. The others lash their horses and follow. When they 
have gone a short way, the first slave-hunter stops and shouts 
threateningly at Levi Coffin. 

SLAVE-HUNTER: We'll attend to you! We will not forget! 
You shall pay for this ! 

Levi Coffin merely nods his head, takes his wife by the arm and 
turns to go back into the house with her. The neighbors who have 
gathered are about to scatter and go back to their regular occupa- 
tions also when a wagon drives up from the south. 

MRS. COFFIN: Who have you there. White? 

DRIVER : Most all Kentucky. 

COFFIN : Well, bring most all Kentucky in. 

MRS. COFFIN : Do they need clothes? I will get them something 
to eat at once. 

COFFIN : Put your locomotives in the barn and let them blow off 
steam. Friends, all you who are stockholders in the Under- 
ground Railroad, it looks as if there were another assessment 
declared on your stock to send these people on their way to 
Canada ! 

ONE MAN: How much is my assessment, Friend Levi? 

COFFIN : I do not know. That is for thee to decide. My assess- 
ment is a dollar. I suppose thine will be about the same. This 
is the only stock I know that makes one feel good every time he 
is called on for an assessment. 

A number of the men come up to Levi Coffin and hand him 
money for the fugitives. While this is going on, a man comes riding 
in at a gallop on horseback from the south whither the slave-hunters 
rode away. He is very much excited, jumps off his horse and runs 
up to Mr. Coffin. 

THE RIDER: Levi, Levi, thee is in great danger ! I have come to 
warn thee! The slave-hunters who were here have publicly 
threatened to burn thee out if it costs them ten thousand dol- 
lars, and to shoot thee at sight or to drag thee into the woods 
and to hang thee. They threaten thee thus publicly in Rich- 
mond, and swear thee is the President of the Underground 
Railroad. Flee, my friend, flee, lest harm befall thee ! 

COFFIN : I thank thee, friend, for the interest thee has manifested 
in my welfare. Make thyself entirely easy however for I antici- 
pate not the slightest disturbance. Barking dogs never bite. If 
these men intended really to do such terrible things to me, they 
would not have told of it publicly. Do not fear. Put away those 
weapons. I do not depend on fire-arms for protection. I have 

[59] 



been thus threatened many times before, but every time in the 
morning my buildings were all standing here as they had been 
the night before ; there was no smell of fire about the premises, 
and I was not found hanging to a tree. Come, put up thy horse, 
and rest with us for the night. In my house there is ample room 
for all. As for the position of President of the Underground 
Railroad, I will gladly accept that position or any other they 
are disposed to give me on that road — conductor, engineer, fire- 
man, or brakeman — and will serve in it to the best of my ability 
for the rest of my life. Come let us see what we can do for 
these people. They call for more attention than those slave- 
hunters. Catherine, tell us what we are to do, 
FUGITIVES: God bress you, massa! God bress you, missy! 

The fugitive slaves throng trustingly about their new-found 
friends, as Mr. Coffin directs the disposition of them for the present 
and all go out together into the home of Levi Coffin while many of 
the neighbors go out to their homes in the opposite direction. 



With the music of Death and Oblivion, the Forms again sweep 
over the field, leaving no vestige of the times of the Underground 
Railroad, "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," being heard as an obbligato 
in the music. 



[60] 



EPISODE EIGHT 

THE CIVIL WAR 
(1861-1863) 

To the music of the "Battle Hymn of the Republic," members 
of the G. A. R. with their battle flags march out onto the field to re- 
ceive the enactment of the episode as a tribute to them and their 
comrades. 

With a sort of suppressed hurry people of the time of the Civil 
War come in, quietly talk with each other, and pass on. Apprehen- 
sion is in the air. Newsboys cry their papers, which are eagerly 
bought and scanned by the men and in not a few cases by women 
also. 

NEWSBOYS: Sumter is fired on ! Latest paper! Special extra of 
the Journal ! Fort Sumter is fired on ! 

MEN ON STREET: The South has taken the aggressive! . . . 
If the South wants war, let her have it ! . . . The North has 
not struck at the Union! ... I never believed the South 
would go so far! ... I have been a Democrat and on the 
side of the South all my life, but the Union comes first ! 

The excitement increases. Boys go round distributing dodgers 
calling a meeting at the Court House. 

BOYS: Great public meeting! Court House at 7 o'clock! Will 
there be war? Great public meeting! Governor Morton will 
speak! Will there be war? Indiana's place in the Union! 

MORE BOYS: Meeting changed to Metropolitan Theater at 7 
o'clock ! Great public meeting ! 

Governor Morton, attended by two or three of his advisors, 
drives through in his carriage. A great shout goes up, "Morton! 
Morton! Governor Morton! Speech!" He bows right and left, 
and is passing on. The Honorable Thomas A. Hendricks with some 
friends comes up. Governor Morton greets him and they talk to- 
gether. Ebenezer Dumont joins them. 

DUMONT: Silence! Silence! The Governor will speak ! 

With another great shout the people come together. Other peo- 
ple gather, some Quakers among them. One party of men bring a 

[61] 



flag with which they take position near the Governor. Governor 
Morton rises in his carriage. 

DUMONT : Friends and Fellow-Citizens : We are to hear from the 
Governor of Indiana, Oliver P. Morton ! (Loud cheers.) 

MORTON : My fellow-citizens of Indiana, at this moment we can 
only wait with such calm restraint as we can to learn w^hat di- 
rection events will take. Fort Sumter is attacked by the people 
of the South. What the outcome may be we can not know ; we 
must be ready for an unfavorable result. But in the chair of 
Washington there sits a great man, worthy to succeed the 
Father of our Country, and capable of meeting all emergencies 
that the hour may produce. The Union is safe in the guidance 
of Abraham Lincoln ! (Great cheers.) I have already conferred 
with the President and told him that Indiana, although divided 
in opinion in regard to the antecedents of secession, would be 
loyal if the time came for action (cheers), and if there were 
need, at least six thousand troops should be ready to march in 
defense of the Union ! (Cheers, and cries of "We will !") 

A telegraph boy runs in. 

TELEGRAPH BOY: Despatches for the Governor! 
DUMONT: Here he is! Bring them right up here ! 

Governor Morton takes the despatches, opens one, reads it and 
hands it to Major Dumont, as he reads the other, and then writes on 
a paper. 

DUMONT (reading) : Sumter has fallen. 

There is silence for a long minute; then a shout that is also a 
groan. Governor Morton raises his hand. 

MORTON: Mr. Lincoln will issue a proclamation to-morrow call- 
ing for 75,000 volunteers. (Cheers.) Is Indiana ready? 
(Cheers.) I am sending the President the following telegram: 
"On behalf of the State of Indiana, I tender you for the defense 
of the nation and to uphold the authority of the government, 
ten thousand men." (Loud cheers.) I have appointed Captain 
Lew Wallace, of Crawfordsville, to be Adjutant-General and 
the raising of troops will proceed at once. 

Soldiers marching to Camp Morton to be mustered in pass by 
amid loud cheering by the people and also by the soldiers in re- 
sponse. Governor Morton raises his hat to them. 

MORTON : Young m.en, Indiana honors you for your enlistment. 
Guard well this flag! Follow your commander even to death! 
I will visit you at the camp. 

[62] 



The soldiers march on. Governor Morton turns to Mr. Benjamin 
Harrison who is standing near him. 

MORTON : I want you to organize a regiment. As you hold office 

as Reporter of the Supreme Court, I will not ask you to go to 

the front. 
HARRISON : If I ask any man to enlist, I will go with him. I 

will gladly render such service as I can in the raising of troops, 

and will myself enlist as a private. 

Mr. Harrison goes out. Mr. Hendricks speaks to Governor Mor- 
ton and then gets into the carriage, standing up to address the 
crowd. 

HENDRICKS : Allow me to say a few words : I have all my life 
been a Democrat and opposed to the coercion of the South, but 
the authority of the government of the United States is not 
questioned in Indiana, and I regard it as the duty of the citizens 
of Indiana to respect and maintain that authority and to give 
the government an honest and earnest support in the prosecu- 
tion of the war, until in the providence of God it may be 
brought to an honorable conclusion and the blessings of peace 
restored to our country. No man will feel a deeper solicitude 
in the welfare and proud bearing of Indiana's soldiery in the 
conflict of arms to which they are called than myself. 

Governor Morton shakes Mr. Hendricks by the hand amid loud 
cheering. Another body of troops passes through with Benjamin 
Harrison in command as Captain. Amid cheers they salute Gover- 
nor Morton. 

MORTON : I see you have selected Mr. Harrison for your Captain. 

SOLDIERS : We have ! We have ! 

MORTON: The worthy grandson of the Hero of the Northwest! 
Another Harrison! I herewith commission him as colonel of 
the Seventieth Indiana Regiment of Infantry! (Cheers.) 

A flag is brought which Governor Morton presents to Colonel 
Harrison for the regiment. With renewed cheers the soldiers march 
on. Miss Catherine Merrill and other patriotic women of Indiana 
come forward. 

MISS MERRILL: Governor Morton, you have shown that you re- 
gard every soldier as a son of Indiana in a personal sense. We 
off^er ourselves to help in the care of the soldiers at the front 
and the wounded on their return. 

MORTON: Indiana accepts and blesses you for your services, as 
will the soldiers themselves. I will arrange to give you full fa- 
cilities for your noble work. . . . Colonel Owen, we shall 
have a large number of Confederate prisoners to take charge of. 

[63] 



... I shall have a prison camp here at Indianapolis and I wish 
you to command it. You Posey County people know how In- 
diana should treat her prisoners. The name of Owen and of 
New Harmony is synonymous with humanity. These men were 
but a few months ago friends and neighbors. Let us bear a 
memory of the past, and add no bitterness to their hard fate. 
Make out a commission for Colonel Richard Owen of the Six- 
tieth Indiana Regiment as Commandant of the Prison Camp at 
Camp Morton. 

Wounded soldiers come in assisted by friends as from trains re- 
turning from the front. Miss Merrill and the other women, with 
evident system, go to meet them and attend to their needs and 
wants. 

There come in from the south a number of Confederate soldiers 
as prisoners under guard. They are in a pitiable condition. Colonel 
Owen goes forward and gives orders for prompt and efficient dispo- 
sition of the sick and wounded among the prisoners, who evince 
their deep gratitude to him for his kindly care of them. They march 
away to the north. 

There is an alarm. Shouts of "Morgan has crossed into Indi- 
ana!" There is dismay and almost panic everywhere. Drums are 
beat and men run to volunteer for the Home Guard. Stoughton 
Fletcher, Chauncey M. Rose and several business men and Quakers 
rush up to Governor Morton, among them Joseph Dickinson, Isaac 
P. Evans, Timothy Harrison and Timothy Nicholson. 

SEVERAL: How can we help. Governor? 

MORTON: The State needs money. The Legislature has not 
passed the appropriation bills. As Governor I am helpless. I 
must carry on the government of the State personally. Will the 
Terre Haute and Richmond Railroad Company lend me 
$15,000? Will you, my friends of Wayne County, lend me 
money? 

R. R. PRESIDENT: Yes, the Terre Haute and Richmond will lend 
you the $15,000 on your receipt. 

JOSEPH DICKINSON: We will sign a note for thee. Friend 
Oliver, for $20,000. 

MORTON : I will start a Bureau of Finance and I appoint Colonel 
W. H. H. Terrell as my Financial Secretary. My friends, you 
have rescued the government of the State. 

Continually fresh reports are brought in of Morgan's raid, some- 
times contradictory, sometimes nearing Indianapolis, sometimes de- 
parting. Soldiers gather and are marched off. . . . Suddenly with 
loud shrill Rebel yells, on the other side of the river, is seen Gen- 

[64] 



eral John H. Morgan with his Confederate cavalry riding at a swift 
gallop north along the river bank. There is a shout of rallying 
among the people. Soldiers are seen hurrying after the raiders on 
the other side, some on horseback, some on foot, while the crowds 
stand on the other side watching breathlessly, until it is evident that 
the raiders are driven from the soil of Indiana, when they all cheer 
and cheer and return quickly out at either end of the grandstand. 

The "Battle Hymn of the Republic" and "Dixie" are played to- 
gether as the members of the G. A. R. return with their battle flags 
to their seats on the grandstand. 



[65] 



IV 
THE TORCH OF ART AND LITERATURE 

From one side pour in all the Indiana Spirits, sweeping forward 
with music of their motif. Their direction is across the field, cover- 
ing it with a whirling mass of changing color, then returning in a 
direction converse to their entrance toward the opposite side of the 
field, whither they converge. Most of them pass out, while some 
pause in postures of acclamation and obeisance, retiring so as to 
leave a large open space in the midst. Thereinto enters the figure 
of Indiana attended by two Angels with trumpets on either side and 
followed by three others. The Spirits escort the State of Indiana to 
a rock at the back of the field and thereon she takes her seat as on a 
throne, the Spirits forming on either side of her a large semi-circle. 
Then the other Angels pour in, accenting their blending groups and 
lines with their distinctive figures. 

With music based on the Pioneer motif, there come in from either 
side streams of people of Indiana of the various generations from 
1816 to 1916 in the dress and styles of their times. Those of the 
first half century, coming in from the left of the grandstand, are led 
by the figure of Death; those of the latter half century coming in, 
from the right, are led by the figure of the Centennial Spirit, both 
on foot. 

From either side then in turn come the Writers, the Painters and 
the Sculptors of Indiana. Those who have passed away are led up 
in turn and presented, some singly, some in groups, to the State of 
Indiana by the figure of Death ; those who are living are led up and 
presented by the figure of the Centennial Spirit. They carry each 
his book, canvas or model wherewith they have contributed to the 
fair name and fame of Indiana, which they hold up as a tribute be- 
fore Indiana. To each one in turn Indiana graciously inclines her 
head and raises her hand in appreciation of their offerings. Then 
they remain near her, gradually forming a smaller crescent inside 
the semicircle of the people. 

Accompanying each writer come two or three of their characters, 
who are included with their creator in the presentation. These 
Writers would include, for instance, John Finley and Sarah T. Bol- 

[66] 



ton, Edward Eggleston, Lew Wallace, Maurice Thompson and Rob- 
ert Underwood Johnson, Charles Major and Gene Stratton Porter, 
William Vaughn Moody, David Graham Phillips and George Barr 
McCutcheon, Meredith Nicholson, George Ade and Booth Tarking- 
ton ; and the historians, John B. Dillon, John Clark Ridpath, Jacob 
Piatt Dunn, James A. Woodbum and George S. Cottman. The 
Painters would include Jacob Cox, B. F. Hayes, Theodore C. Steele, 
William Forsyth, Otto Stark, J, Ottis Adams, R. B. Gruelle, Williani 
M. Chase, Amalia Kussner, E. M. Bundy, Clifton Wheeler, Charles 
S. Conner, Wayman Adams; the illustrators, John T. McCutch- 
eon, Franklin Booth, Hanson Booth, Worth Brehm, Will Vawter, 
and Fred Yohn. The Sculptors would include Janet Scudder, 
George Grey Barnard and John J. Mahoney. So, for example, John 
Finley would be attended by an early Hoosier family ; Edward Eg- 
gleston by the "Hoosier Schoolmaster," "Roxy" and the "Circuit- 
Rider" ; Lew Wallace by "Ben Hur" and the "Prince of India" ; and 
Booth Tarkington by "Monsieur Beaucaire," "The Gentleman from 
Indiana," and "Penrod." 

Then there comes in James Whitcomb Riley. With him are Lit- 
tle Orphant Annie, holding close to one hand, and a small barefoot 
boy holding close to the other, while Aunt Mary and a number of 
other children follow. Two of the children carry some of his books, 
very much worn. Death and the Centennial Spirit both go down 
to meet him as he comes up the center and returning with him both 
present him to Indiana. Standing before Indiana, Riley indicates 
with a gesture the happy children around him, and the two children 
kneel and present his poems to Indiana as both his tribute and their 
own. Then Indiana rises and holds out her hand to him. Riley 
kneels and kisses her hand, and Indiana places a laurel wreath on 
his head and raises her hands over him, while all the people raise 
their arms in affectionate acclamation of their poet, the Poet of 
Indiana. The music is simple and melodic in character, based on a 
motif which may be called the Riley motif. 

Death and the Centennial Spirit raise Riley from his knees and 
escort him to the river bank. A slender black barge comes to the 
shore. In the prow stands an Angel with a trumpet; in the stern 
is one of the Forms of Death and Oblivion, who propels the boat 
with a long oar. Riley enters the boat and is immediately borne 
away down stream, Little Orphant Annie and the other children 
standing on the bank and waving to him until he passes out of 
sight. Then they return with Death and the Centennial Spirit to 
the others. 

[67] 



Indiana rises and, Death, the Centennial Spirit and the children 
preceding her, comes straight down toward the grandstand. The 
Writers and their characters, the Painters and the Sculptors fall in 
directly behind Indiana. The Angels and the people of the various 
generations close in together to continue the massed column in re- 
cessional. After an interval the Indiana Spirits close down upon 
the retiring throng, scattering out as they do so until again they 
cover the entire field with a whirling mass of changing color for a 
moment and then quickly disappear, passing out at the two ends of 
the grandstand. 



[68] 



EPISODE NINE 

THE WAGON AND THE PLOW 
(1885) 

People of the early 80's come in from both sides. Carriages 
drawn by horses, — phaetons, buggies, landaus, — go by on the road 
in both directions with ladies in the dress of the time. A yoimg fel- 
low on a high bicycle rides through. A croquet party bring out 
their mallets and balls, but stop to see the new game, tennis, so 
much like battledore and shuttlecock. A couple of policemen saun- 
ter around and keep order. 

In a moment from the thicket at one end of the grandstand 
come pioneers of the early days with their families, followed by a 
few Indians. There is consternation among the people of the 
80's. Some of the ladies are frightened and almost faint. Two or 
three gentlemen, however, gather themselves together and confront 
the approach of the pioneers while the others look on. One acts as 
spokesman. 

GENTLEMAN: What are you doing here? 

PIONEER : We thought it was time for us to move on a bit. 

GENTLEMAN : But you are out of your episode. 

PIONEER : Maybe we are, but that makes no difference. . 

GENTLEMAN: It does make a difference. You are in our epi- 
sode. 

PIONEER: So we air. You see we hunted through and settled all 
the new country in our times, so we thought we'd go move on 
to some new times. 

GENTLEMAN : But you can not come here. We'll call the police. 
Police ! Police ! 

PIONEERS: Police! What's them? Oh, — we don't mind them. 

The two policemen come sauntering up from different directions 
and look the pioneers over. 

GENTLEMAN : Officer ! Officer ! These — persons have come out 
of their episodes and have nearly frightened our wives and 
children to death. Send them back a hundred years ! 

POLICE: Who are they? Who are thay? ^ 

[69] 



; 



PIONEERS : We are Indiana pioneers. We have come a hundred 
years — 

POLICE : Well, these people here don't want you. So you'd better 
move on. 

PIONEERS: Move on? We'll not move on! We have as much 
right here as they have or those people up there. They are out 
of their episode too. They have not got here yet. We got here 
first. Get out of our way ! 

The Pioneers and Indians take threatening attitudes, loading 
their muzzle-loading rifles, the women and children quickly gather- 
ing in a group behind the men, and the Indians brandishing their 
tomahawks and letting out a war-whoop or two. The police forth- 
with lose interest and turn away. 

POLICE : Can not do anything. Call the Board of Health. They're 
dead. We can not move them without order of the Coroner. 

There is dismay among the people of the 80's. The two groups 
stand facing each other. Some of the Forms of Death and Oblivion 
run out as if to surround the Pioneers and Indians. 

PEOPLE OF 80'S: Take them back ! Take them back ! 

The Centennial Spirit rides in and holds up her hand. 

CENTENNIAL SPIRIT: The Indiana spirit, ever onward, will 
not be gainsaid. We gather here in this my year from all the 
State, from all the generations too. Bring the people of my 
own year here as well! Ye all are pioneers and looking ever 
forward. The mysteries of constructive genius see ! 

Surrounded by some of the Indiana Spirits, people of 1916 come 
in and take position as a third group. The Forms of Death and 
Oblivion and the Indiana Spirits mingling form a line behind them 
all. 

PIONEER: We came into this wilderness and made it ours! 

A Conestoga wagon is driven in along the road. Immediately 
after a Studebaker farm wagon with cumulative wagon bed comes 
in from the other direction, so that they meet. 

1880 MAN : Now Indiana sends her wagons east and west and 
north and south! 

PIONEER : Our Conestoga holds more goods. 

1880 MAN: Our Studebaker either more or less, according to the 
load and according to the road. 

Men take off sections of the wagon bed, showing the cumulative 
structure. 

[70] 



PIONEER: We cleared the forests with our brawny arms! 
1880 MAN: For their log rollings, Indiana sends the lumbermen of 
all America a pair of wheels. 

Some of the Pioneers step forward with staves to show how 
they rolled their logs. A log wagon is driven through with a string 
or horses. 

PIONEER: We plowed and planted all these fertile acres years 
and years ago ! 

1880 MAN: We plow and plant these acres, too, and feed the peo- 
ple of a score of states, and make the plows that plant the acres 
of the world. 

An old plow 120 years old is brought through, an ox and a man 
pulling it from one side; and from the other, two of the Oliver 
Chilled Plows, the No. 40 walking plow and the No. 11 sulky. The 
Pioneers are amazed and admire the wonderful implements. 

1880 MAN: This is indeed the height of manufacturing! See that 
mold board, how it turns the earth and scours ! 

1916 MAN: Ah, but see what our day will produce! For all the 
needs of all the soils of all the world! To Europe go these 
plows. The prairies of the west are field on field plowed up 
wholesale by these. 

One of the largest plows made is driven through, drawn by oxen. 
Then, drawn by an International Harvester tractor, a 16 gang plow 
is driven through. 

PIONEERS : Our day was but a little day! Who are the men that 

make these things? 
CENTENNIAL SPIRIT: True men of Indiana! 

John M. Studebaker and James Oliver come forward. 

PIONEER : Why, thet ar's young Jim Oliver of Mishawaka. And 
thet John Studebaker, sure's you live! We knew them boys 
when we was old. Hello, the house, Jim! Who keeps the 
house, Jim! Who keeps the house, J. M.! They belong to us! 

1880 PEOPLE : But everybody knows they are of our time ! 

1916 PEOPLE: Their biggest work will be in our time! 

CENTENNIAL SPIRIT: To Indiana they belong and all the 
thousands in our State who by their toil and industry create 
the means whereby their fellow-men may rise and serve in 
turn their fellows better! The plow and wagon are but types 
of Indiana manufacturing. 

PIONEERS : Our day was but a little day! 

CENTENNIAL: You have not spoken of the greatest of your 
deeds. You men and women of the early day made strong and 

[71] 



true the men and women of the later time. So you made In- 
diana! You made the men, true pioneers, who plunged into 
the mysteries of industry and wrought the miracles of manu- 
facturing! You conquered the wilderness; your sons spread 
far their farms along the Indiana rivers ; these latter sons along 
the railroads day and night, year in, year out, create the tools 
of life for all the world. Each generation in its turn contributes 
its due part to that supreme achievement of Indiana manufac- 
turing, the making of a greater State ! Closer and closer draw 
the binding ties that make of Indiana all one family ! 



With the music of Death and Oblivion again the Forms sweep 
over the scene, leaving no vestige of the days of the 80's, On the 
Banks of the Wabash being heard as an obbligato in the music. 
The people of the 80's are gone ; the Pioneers are gone. The Forms 
of Death and Oblivion follow them out. The Indiana Spirits re- 
main, retired in the background. The lights soften down on the 
field and all out on the river and beyond is in darkness. 



[72] 



EPISODE TEN 

THE BINDING TIES 

Across the river two gas wells blaze up in the night air and burn 
above the tops of the trees. The People of 1916 mingle with People 
of 1900 and the intervening time as they come running in to gaze 
at the gas wells, standing in excited groups all over the field. The 
people come in from every direction, some with picnic baskets, some 
with blankets even to see as much as possible of the great sight. 
There are frequent outbursts of cheering. 

PEOPLE: Have you seen it? Gas! It's gas, alright! Natural 
gas! 

MRS. SMITH : We brought our suppers. We're going to stay till 
the late train. 

BROWN : We're going to stay all night. We're going to see this 
thing. 

MRS. BROWN: Isn't it grand! 

SEVERAL : I never see the like in all my life, did you? 

OTHERS : I never did. 

ROBINSON : Right out of the earth. Comes from a depth of 1,000 
feet! 

JONES: 1,000? More like 5,000 feet, I can tell you! 
MRS. JONES: Now, Will, are you sure? How can you know? 
JONES : Well, I know— 
CROWD: Ah! Ah-h-h-h! (Cheers.) 
SMITH : First found at Anderson, this here gas was ! 
MUNCIEMAN: Anderson? It was first found at Muncie ! 
NOBLE: What are you talking about? It came up first at Nobles- 
ville. Came up all by itself. I live there. I ought to know ! 

SEVERAL: Aw! ... It was at Marion it was found first! 
'Twas not, 'twas at Elwood ! 

GREEN : What's the matter with Kokomo, I'd like to know. Every 
last one of you is trying to get the credit of it away from 
the rightful place. It was in Howard County, if you want to 
know, just outside of Kokomo. I was there to Kokomo just 
the week before and I heard all about it ! 

CROWD: Ah-h-h! (Cheers.) 

There is a pause, during which the crowd stand silently watch- 
ing the blazing gas wells. A small group of men in the middle at- 

[73] 



tract the attention of the crowd. They are men of standing and im- 
portance. 

JOHNSON: A great thing for Indiana! 

JACKSON: It is indeed! Cheap light! 

THOMPSON: And cheap fuel! It will bring manufacturers to 
Indiana without end ! It will be the making of the State, if we 
use it right. 

BLACK : Oh, it's inexhaustible ! Costs nothing anyway ! 

JOHNSON: If carefully used it may last a long time; if wasted, it 
may be gone any day. 

SEVERAL : Aw ! Look at that ! See any signs of that giving out? 
It's been blowing away there steady for more'n — don't know 
how long ! I've been watching it ! 

JOHNSON: No better investment on the market if you keep your 
head — 

Several manufacturers come in and approach some of the people. 

WHITE: Do you own land hereabouts? I will give you 50 cents 
a year per acre, and $100 a year for each gas well we put up 
on it. 

JACKSON: Going to move your factory to Indiana? Cheap fuel! 
Cost you 10 cents where you've paid $1.00 before! What kind 
of business are you in? 

ROBINSON: Glass. Yes, I am coming to Indiana. 

Manufacturers followed by typical employees pass across, — glass 
blowers, iron workers with pots of molten metal and other sugges- 
tions of large interests establishing themselves in the State. 

SEVERAL : Look at that ! For the land's sake ! 

The first Haynes automobile is driven in, amid both cheers and 
laughs. All the crowd gather around to see it. A horse being 
driven by rears up and bolts. Excitement over the runaway horse. 

SMITH : See that ! It's not safe to have such things on the public 
highway. 

JOHNSON : My friends, this horseless carriage will open up the 
country districts, bring the towns and the farms closer together. 

BROWN : No sensible farmer will ever have one of those around 
his place. You mark my words ! (Laugh.) 

JACKSON : You mark MY words, the farmers will buy as many of 
these automobile carriages as the townspeople within ten or 
fifteen years! 

MRS. SMITH : Land's sake ! Land's sake ! Jest look at it ! 

MRS. BROWN : Without a horse ! Lan's sake ! 

[74] 



JONES : It is a nice curiosity, but it will never be practical. Might 
as well talk about flying ! 

THOMPSON : On the contrary, you will find that few things will 
do so much to bring the whole State together! This and the 
trolley car! 

SMITH : But what would you do if the danged engine give out? 

Other automobiles pass through, all of Indiana make ; the Hajmes, 
Marmon, Waverley, Apperson, National, Pathfinder, Empire, Pre- 
mier and others. The road begins to show the characteristics of an 
automobile highway and the horses are fewer and fewer. At first 
the horses show fright, as at the first Haynes automobile ; then they 
become accustomed to the automobiles; and toward the end of the 
scene there are very few horses to be seen at all. Studebaker Con- 
solidated School Wagons, delivery wagons and Mais automobile 
trucks pass along the road. 

Then a trolley car of the Interurban comes through, bringing a 
lot of people. It stops. People get out; others get in. The con- 
ductor calls the route and the car goes off again. Another car ar- 
rives from the opposite direction. 

CONDUCTOR: Indianapolis! All out! 

PEOPLE: This where we get out for the pageant? Conductor, I 
want to go to the pageant. 

CONDUCTOR : All out ! All out for the Pageant of Indiana ! This 
car for Shelbyville, Greensburg and Cincinnati! All aboard! 
. . . All aboard! This car for Noblesville, Kokomo and 
Peru! . . . All aboard! This car for Danville, Greencastle 
and Terre Haute ! All aboard ! This car for Lebanon, Franf ort 
and Lafayette ! All aboard ! This car for Seymour, Jeff erson- 
ville and Louisville ! 

The conductors cry the various routes, and the crowd gathers 
more and more, as the cars come in from all over the State, looking 
forward to the gathering of all the generations of the people of In- 
diana celebrated in the Finale. 



[75] 



V 

FINALE: INDIANA! 

The electric lights over the field soften. The orchestra sounds 
forth strong and clear the theme of the Centennial Spirit. Again 
from one side comes the Centennial Spirit on horseback attended by 
the Community Arts. The people pause in their various occupa- 
tions and fall back to the sides into two curved masses. The auto- 
mobiles and horses pass out and do not return. Advancing into the 
center the Centennial Spirit holds high her sword and with orches- 
tral accompaniment calls upon all the children of the State to gather. 

CENTENNIAL SPIRIT: 

Ho, now has come the crowning height of time ! 

All Indiana gathers to acclaim the year 

That rounds complete a glorious century ! 

They come, the thousand thousands of the State ! 

From north, from south, by every road and stream, 

From lakeside prairie and from river hills ; — 

And far adown the long-lost years they come, 

The distant generations of the past. 

To join with all the hosts of all the years. 

In joyous, grateful tribute to the State, 

America, and God! Come! Come! Come! Come! 

The orchestra playing music in march time akin to the Indiana 
theme, all the people of all the generations of Indiana come march- 
ing in from both sides of the grandstand and form a massive body 
in the field, leaving a broad passage in the middle and a space 
around the outside. 

CENTENNIAL SPIRIT: 

And thou, O Death, thou Guardian of the Things 

We can not see ! Thou Keeper of the Past ! 

Thou Noble Warden of the Greater Life toward which 

We go ! To us for this Centennial Year 

Thou hast brought back the past ! To thee again 

That past and this our present we commit ! 

Come, mighty Mystery ! In thy true semblance come ! 

With music of the Death motif glorified and of the harmonies of 
Death and Oblivion and the Celestial music there enters on horse- 
back the tall figure of Death, gorgeous in his resplendent raiment, 

[76] 



from which all shadow of black gloom has disappeared. He is at- 
tended by a number of the Angels and followed by the throng of 
the Forms of Death and Oblivion, whose garments have similarly 
become glorified. The Forms surround the whole massed group of 
the generations, while Death himself and those attending him go 
up the middle and take position opposite the Centennial Spirit. The 
music then strikes into the Hymn to Indiana, played by the or- 
chestra alone. Forthwith there enters from one side, the figure of 
the State of Indiana on horseback, carrying her State Shield and 
bearing the blue and green Pageant Flag of Indiana. She is at- 
tended by the other Angels and followed by the buckskin-clad pio- 
neers representing the Counties. She goes straight up the middle, 
while all the people raise their arms in acclaim, the Centennial 
Spirit and Death riding part way down to meet her and to escort 
her back. When Indiana reaches her place at the center near the 
river bank and turns around to the assembled mass of all her people, 
she raises her flag, and all the people burst out into singing 

THE HYMN TO INDIANA 

To Heaven raise thy star-crowned head, 

Superb Indiana! 
Thy future to glory wed 

Through toil! Praise God! Hosanna! 

Arise! Stand! Strive! 

Thy faith revive ! 

With courage and decision 

Press onward toward thy vision! 

Arise! Firm! True! 
Thy strength renew ! 
God prosper thy gages 
To serve the coming ages! 

To Heaven raise thy star-crowned head. 

Superb Indiana! 
Thy future to glory wed 

Through toil! Praise God! Hosanna! 

The first six notes of The Star-Spangled Banner sound forth on 
the trumpets. Indiana turns and points up the river, where is seen 
coming in a glow of golden light America on a white and golden 
barge rowed by strong men garbed in the classic tunic. America is 
in white, has the Shield of the United States on her shoulder and 
bears the American Flag in her hand. She is standing in the prow 

[77] 



of the barge. With her are the other four States of the old North 
West Territory, — Ohio, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin, — each 
bearing her State Shield but not her flag, as having no sovereignty 
in Indiana. The white and gold barge of America is followed by 
other barges bearing the other States of the Union. The States are 
all in blue and each wears the shining star of statehood on her fore- 
head. As America and the States are rowed down the river, the 
glow of golden light in which they come gleaming ever brighter and 
brighter, the people all turned toward the river, sing 

THE HYMN TO AMERICA* 

Forever shine on our mountain heights ! 

Forever dwell by our valleys' streams ! 
And may thy stars illume the nights 

Where'er thy glorious banner gleams ! 

In thee unite the sovereign States ! 

In thee all trade and commerce live! 
To all thou openest wide thy gates; 

To all thy name and thy life dost give! 

The little child thou dost protect ; 

The strongest man for his work inspire ! 
The wayward firmly dost correct; 

And guard our homes from flood and fire ! 

Thy name we share from south to north ; 

Thine air we breathe from east to west ! 
Thy glory, America, leads us forth 

In victory onward toward the best! 

O God, Who givest the breath of life 

To peoples of the human race, 
Make Thou our land in peace or strife 

A Nation strong, of uplifted face ! 

As America's barge comes dow^n where Indiana stands, the or- 
chestra bursts into The Star-Spangled Banner again. The barge 
bearing America comes up to the shore. America and the States 
with her disembark and come up on to the bank. A white horse is 
brought for her and horses for the States of Ohio, Illinois, Michigan 
and Wisconsin. They mount and take their position in the center, 
Indiana taking her position by the side of America and a little back 
of her, while the other four States are in a row behind them. The 
barges bearing the other States form in a row out in the stream 
of the river. As America takes her place in the center of the Cen- 

*The music of The Hymn to America is by Brookes C. Peters. 

[78] 



tennial tableau, a great corona of lights, of many colors, blazes up 
from the other shore of the river, streaming up like a prismatic 
aurora, and reflecting its radiance in the water. At the close of The 
Star-Spangled Banner, America raises her flag high in the air full 
arm's length. All the people of the Pageant except those who are 
mounted on horses or are on the barges kneel and sing the prayer 
stanza of the hymn, America. 

AMERICA 

Our fathers' God, to Thee, 

Author of Liberty, 

To Thee we sing! 
Long may our land be bright 
With Freedom's holy light ! 
Protect us by thy might. 

Great God, our King! 

All rise, and the music playing the H5nnn to Indiana as a march, 
all the people of the Pageant, marshaled by the Centennial Spirit 
and Death together, march up on both sides toward America and 
Indiana, then after saluting turn and march down toward the center 
of the grandstand in massed column. There they again divide, and 
go out at the two ends of the grandstand. The Indiana Spirits 
throng down with the people of the various generations, mingling 
with them. The Forms of Death and Oblivion remain where they 
are. When the people have departed the Centennial Spirit and 
Death go up toward America and Indiana and escort them out the 
same way. The Angels all accompany America, Indiana and the 
States of the North West Territory, some of them mingling with 
the Pioneers who represent the Counties. At the same time the 
barges bearing the States in the river divide and are rowed some up 
stream and some down stream out of sight in either direction. Only 
the Forms of Death and Oblivion remain. As the music changes 
for the last time to their harmonies, they ride over the field again, 
sweeping away into their own regions of the unknown and of mys- 
tery every vestige of the Pageant of Indiana. They ride away. The 
lights on all the field go out. The corona glows in the air and in the 
water for a moment and then disappears. 



[79] 



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